There is life after TV villainy but not where the viewers might think
It’s no secret that the best part of reality TV is the villain. Whether created by smart editing or their true personality, they keep the audience coming back for more.
But let’s be real, they usually slip back into non-existence once the show ends.
So we tracked down New Zealand’s favourite love-to-hate TV characters to see what they’re up to now.
Ben Blackwell
He was the first to admit that he was either going to be ‘‘loved or loathed’’ when he appeared on Married at First Sight in 2017. Ben is still one of the most hated MAFS stars of all time. It didn’t help that he regularly stressed how he didn’t find groom Aaron Chisholm attractive.
These days, the 27-year-old Aussie is still Auckland-based and is still squeezing out the last drops of his 15-minutes of fame by regularly appearing at celebrity parties.
He’s also reunited with his ex, Melbourne-based Jayden Jacobson. They’ve been in a long-distant relationship for the past few months. Surprisingly, he’s now also on talking terms with Aaron.
Louise Wallace
Her Jekyll and Hyde personality on The Real Housewives of Auckland earned her the title of the show’s villain and it’s something Louise Wallace enjoyed ‘‘playing’’. These days, Louise’s career is having a bit of a renaissance away from reality TV. She’s the face of Sky’s Opening Night, which looks at the latest theatre available in New Zealand and she’s also treading the boards again, appearing in comedy production, Kings of the Gym, opening at PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna this November.
Sarah Adams and Richard Boobyer
These two lovebirds graced our screens for the first series of The Block way back in 2012 and caused uproar by strategically scoring all their fellow contestants one out of 10 during a dinner challenge.
A few months after the show ended, they denied their relationship was over but in 2014, the Hamilton pair did split after an around-the-world trip.
Richard has been dating pal Abbey Chisholm for the past two years and Sarah is focusing on her career after re-training as a real estate agent.
Chrystal Chenery
She was known for stirring-up trouble on The Bachelor as she tried to win the love of Art Green back in 2015. And life has hardly simmered down since. After Chrystal split from her real estate guru boyfriend Ricky Cave in 2017, she made headlines in a custody battle over their French bulldog Bruce.
Career wise? There was a stint on Dancing with the Stars and then an announcement that she would be hosting Survivor NZ which TVNZ denied.
And there have been constant rumours that she’ll be New Zealand’s first Bachelorette.
Naz Khanjani
Naz Khanjani, 2017’s Bachelor baddie, also enjoyed a stint on Dancing with the Stars, injecting a few more minutes into her time in the spotlight.
She wanted the nation to know she’s no longer ‘‘nasty Naz’’, a title she earned on The Bachelor for her underhand tactics. Instead, she was now nice Naz. She is now a ‘‘fitness model’’ on Instagram.
Jordan Mauger
Easily one of the most disliked Bachelor choices of all time, Jordan Mauger admitted to choosing his winning ‘‘love’’ by tossing a coin. Unsurprisingly, the relationship was short-lived with Jordan dumping winner Fleur Verhoeven just 72 hours after the show ended.
He successfully worked as a director on films such as Hunt for the Wilder-people but he wants to be an actor – not a serious one though, it seems, as he joined Bachelor in Paradise.
Angela Stone
Angela definitely didn’t receive a lot of love from the nation when she appeared on Real Housewives of Auckland.
Not that she cares. Since leaving the show, Angela has lost 10kg, fallen in love and is now working on projects that are ‘‘empowering’’.
Quite the difference to life on the show, where she was fat shamed by RHOA co-star and rival Michelle Blanchard, who asked if she was a ‘‘plus-size model’’.
Julia Sloane
Julia was behind the Real Housewives global brand’s worst racial slur when she uttered the words ‘‘boat n **** r’’ on the show.
It’s a hard place to claw back from but over the past few years, she’s tried (and kind of failed) to put that incident behind her.
This year, she released a documentary called Let’s Talk About Sex, which follows her on a journey of sexual discovery around the country.
And while there’s talks that it could be made into a TV series, no amount of Julia-Sloane-trying-out-bondage will erase that moment.
Julia Sloane, right, was behind the Real Housewives global brand’s worst racial slur.
Carly Binding
TrueBliss were New Zealand’s first manufactured pop group born from reality TV show called Popstars and it was all going so well for the girl group until Carly Binding decided that a solo career suited her better.
Since then, she has dipped in and out of her singing career. It started off strong with six top-40 hits and then in 2007, she spent six months working the LA scene.
But in recent years, especially since splitting from husband Matthew Ridge in 2015 , Carly has completely stepped out of the limelight. These days she prefers family time with her son London, now 8, and new man Andy Mateljan.