Monk in the middle
As Beauty and the Geek returns for a new season, series host Sophie Monk tells Siobhan Duck which side of the divide she lands on, and what married life has done for her matchmaking skills
DON’T let her stunning looks deceive you, Sophie Monk considers herself far more of a geek than a beauty. “You should see me when I don’t have a hair and make-up team, which costs the network a lot of money,” Monk laughs.
“I am definitely not a beauty.
I’m just naturally more geeky in my interests. I love playing the Xbox.
And I love board games.”
And, as if to further make her case, after watching the participants playing Dungeons and Dragons last season, the Beauty and the Geek host enthuses she cannot wait to give the fantasy role-play game a go too.
“I am hanging to play it,” she exclaims.
“I just need some friends to play it with.”
Although she always looks glamorous when she’s on a red carpet or on TV, Monk says she is most comfortable just hanging out at home in her ugg boots.
“My idea of fun is to have friends over to my house to chill and have some food and some drinks,” she says.
“I am not going to cool bars.”
It’s a far cry from her modelling days, when Monk says she felt far more pressure to dress up and uphold a certain image when she left the house.
These days, she’s confident enough in her own skin to hit the shops in her tracksuit pants and without a scrap of make-up on her face, reasoning that “everyone living on the Central Coast does the same thing”.
It’s Monk’s laidback nature and self-deprecating sense of humour that has made her such a soughtafter TV personality.
Certainly, when it comes to TV dating shows there are few – except, perhaps, Osher Günsberg – more experienced in the genre than Monk, who has the unique honour of having served as both participant and host.
In 2017, Australians watched as the down-to-earth star was wined and dined by a squadron of suitors on The Bachelorette.
Now happily married to husband Joshua Gross, Monk’s TV dating days are behind her, but she is still a sucker for romance; hosting both Love Island Australia and Beauty and the Geek for Channel 9.
Her impressive TV dating show resumé has made Monk a star that complete strangers now trust with their own dating dramas. In fact, she says, people often approach her at restaurants, looking for dating advice.
“I think it would have happened anyway because it’s my nature
[to offer advice to the lovelorn],” she laughs.
“People have a few drinks and within five minutes, they’re offloading and crying to me, and I am counselling them.
“And it’s gorgeous that strangers trust me that way.”
Having done the rounds of the TV dating genre, Monk believes it’s the “innocence and sweetness” at the heart of Beauty and the
Geek that sets it apart from the competition.
“It’s just that innocence of the geeks [who have a] vulnerability and sweetness in expressing themselves,” she says.
“Everyone walks out of the show saying it’s the best experience of their life, which is so rare for a reality show or a dating show as well.
“That being said, it’s not boring. It’s so entertaining as well.
“I think it just works because it’s refreshing.”
Monk hastens to add that Nine rebooted the format when it took over the franchise so that the challenges and the people weren’t so “one-dimensional”.
“They used to give the beauties maths problems,” she laughs of the previous incarnation of the series, which played more into out-dated stereotypes about dumb blondes and nerdy losers.
She says the latest season of the Logie-nominated program is even more entertaining than the first season she hosted in 2021. Partly, she believes, due to the fact that the participants, having seen the previous season, came into the series trusting that they weren’t there to be mocked or made to look foolish.
“I’ve watched most of the episodes three times,” she enthuses.
“Like, I hardly ever watch shows back because I hate watching myself back, but this is such a lovely, gorgeous and comical show. It’s so entertaining. So I am very proud.”
Another way that Beauty and the Geek distinguishes itself from other dating shows is that it’s as much about self-love as it is finding it with someone else.
“There’s no pressure on the show [to get together],” she says.
“You can be best friends, as long as you bring the best out of each other.
“That being said, there’s a lot of romance in the show.”
Although she “loves love”, Monk has never been in a rush to get married herself.
“I have always believed in love, but I was never that girl that needed to be married or have kids by a certain age,” she says.
“I have never been someone to follow society. I just do what I want, really.”
She finally tied the knot with Gross earlier this year at an intimate ceremony at the home they share. The couple’s meeting was like something out of one of the rom-coms Monk loves watching, striking up a conversation when they were both passengers on a long-distance flight.
She says being married to
Gross makes their relationship feel even more special and “unbreakable.” Having found happiness at long last has also given Monk an appreciation for real love over romantic fairytales; ultimately making her a better matchmaker.
“I think just having a best friend that you can be yourself with is such a nice thing,” she enthuses of being with Gross.
“After not having it for so long you notice how special it is to have someone on your side, to have a teammate.”
■ Beauty and the Geek, Sunday, 8pm, MondayWednesday, 7.30pm, Nine