In the name of Love

The second season of The Bachelorette is about to kick off and this year’s contestant, Georgia Love, tells DANIELLE MCGRANE why she needed to take part and what to expect from this season of the reality show.

This year’s Bachelorette really deserves to find love. The clue is in the name, of course, but 28-year-old Georgia Love has been doing it a little tough lately, with exboyfriends accusing her of infidelity in the media and her mother’s recent cancer diagnosis.

“It was incredibly hurtful, some of the things that have been said about me, and the most hurtful part about it is that people who were a big part of my life have come out and said negative and nasty things about me,” Love said.

The Melbourne girl had been working as a TV journalist with WIN in Tasmania before becoming this year’s Bachelorette, but even her experience in the media couldn’t prepare her for some of what she’s had to face, including false accusations of cheating from ex-boyfriends.

“There could be no warning that something would come out that isn’t true, so I didn’t go into this thinking, ‘I really hope X, Y and Z doesn’t come out and I really hope person X doesn’t say such and such about me’, because what has been said isn’t true and that’s what’s hurtful about it,” she said.

Love made some sacrifices for the show – including giving up her job – and, while she won’t reveal whether she’s found love, it seems the experience was worth it.

“I don’t want to give anything away, but I can definitely say I’m happy,” she said.

The odds are in Love’s favour, considering she started with 16 potential suitors on the first night of the show.

She admits she was surprised by the effort some of the men made from the start.

“A lot of them had a little gift or something … when they arrived,” she said.

“But there were also some real stand-outs who just came up and just had a chat with me, so the gifts didn’t sway me one way or another but it was really nice that these guys were making the effort to do something to be memorable.”

Love had a few favourites after the first meeting, but that didn’t necessarily mean the other guys didn’t get a look-in.

“There was very clear chemistry and sparks with certain people,” she said.

“But another thing I learnt through doing this is that first impressions don’t mean all that much. People that didn’t really make much of an impact ended up developing into much more, and that’s something that really, really surprised me.”

Love said it was pretty overwhelming meeting that many potential boyfriends on that first night, but it helped that she went in with a clear idea of what she was looking for in a partner.

“I really was looking for someone who made me laugh and somebody who made me excited, who I got excited to see and spend every day with, because I love that feeling and I think that’s what love is,” she said.

“If you don’t have that, then it’s not love.”

To her surprise, she met men who made her feel both of those things – more men than she expected to.

“I actually met so many guys who did that, which made the whole thing very difficult but also really wonderful,” she said.

Another thing that made the process a little easier was the fun dates Love and her suitors got to go on, which, she says, had a particularly personal twist.

“There was a lot of extravagance and excitement and things I would never get the opportunity to do away from this. But there was also a lot of me and a lot of things I love and were very specific to me,” she said.

“I feel like from watching seasons before mine, my season is very catered to me and a lot of the dates I organised were to show my personality and to see if these guys liked the same things as me.”

One of those things she likes is musicals, so much so that she says she’s liable to burst into song at a moment’s notice. “That makes me quite a surprise package,” she said.

Love might need to hone her musical theatre skills even more when The Bachelorette finishes, having left her job to take part. However, having been a career girl up to this point, she says she’s happy to be focusing on her personal life for a change.

It’s particularly important to her to be able to be in Melbourne with her mum, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“My mum’s going through chemo at the moment, so I want to be there with her,” she said. “It’s very scary for all of us and that’s something I want to focus on and I want to be there with her no matter what happens with all of this.”

It also gives Love a chance to find happiness in her personal life, which is not something she’s always put first.

“I’ve … been so happy with work and my career, there’s just been something really big missing … I’ve realised that’s love,” she said.

While she’s remaining tight-lipped on the outcome, Love indicated the decision to take part had definitely worked in her favour.

“It can take me a lot to make a big decision but once I’ve made one it’s always worked out well for me and I trust the decision, so this is just another even bigger one of those,” she said.

Love: “I really was looking for someone who made me laugh and somebody who made me excited, who I got excited to see and spend every day with … If you don’t have that, then it’s not love.”