I’ve got your back! THE BACHELORETTE BABES’ DEEP DEVOTION
The girls spill about their special bond
Life is dramatically different for The Bachelorette New Zealand buddies Lesina Nakhid-Schuster and Lily McManus compared to just a few weeks ago. Like the rest of us, the reality TV stars are bunkered down during the COVID-19 isolation period – Lesina at a hospital in Australia and Lily in her parents’ beachside shed in the South Island.
“I haven’t watched an episode of the show for weeks and my brain’s completely Coronabombarded at the moment,” says doctor Lesina, 32, who is working as a locum in Canberra, doing back-to-back surgeries in full protective wear. While she’d planned to come home earlier to self-isolate, Aotearoa’s first-ever Bachelorette was needed for work across the ditch. But she hopes she’ll be able to return after the lockdown to help with the pandemic in her home country.
Lily’s focus in Golden Bay is more relaxed, where she’s set up with a laptop and snacks. “There’s a lot of writing I want to do,” shares the 23-year-old, whose accommodation includes a bed, Wi-Fi and little else. “About two years ago I started putting all the stories in my head onto paper. Then I had more and more and it kind of turned into a book.”
Her writing is truthful, raw and controversial, and she laughs,
“Let’s just say I’ll release it when I’m very OK with never having to show up in the media again!”
Her tell-all should likely include adventures from dates she and Lesina shared with 22 single guys on the TVNZ 2 show, which is due come to an explosive end on March 30.
Speaking with Woman’sDay ahead of the final, the girls are cautious not to give away any spoilers, but both agree one of the best things to come out of the journey is their friendship. As well as having someone to glam up and drink wine with before each rose ceremony and cocktail party, the pair supported each other through the most challenging parts – like Lily’s heartbreaking goodbye to loved-up sheet metal engineer Quinn Ryan, 25, last week.
“We’d get home, eat, talk, vent and go to sleep,” recalls Lily, who previously appeared on TheBachelorNZ and Celebrity TreasureIsland. “Then we’d wake up and do it all over. It was all very high-energy and that’s great for my personality.”
Now that she’s lived with Lesina, Lily can confirm the brunette beauty’s not as tidy as people might think!
“I expected her to be structured and orderly at home since she’s a doctor. But she’s as messy as me – maybe even a little messier. It was awesome,” Lily laughs. “Our apartment looked like trash with clothes everywhere. And Lesina has the worst time management!”
When the girls were travelling they had their own hotel rooms, and Lily tells, “If we had the same call time, I’d knock on her door and she’d open it in a towel and say, ‘Honey, I slept through my alarm!’ I’d help her get ready as quickly as possible like, ‘How the f*** are you a doctor?’ while aggressively packing her bag for her.”
On the flipside, Lesina was always ready to pull her friend up on what Lily calls her “worst trait”.
“I can be hard on myself and doubtful. I tend to be hyperrealistic sometimes to the point of crushing fairytales and dreams,” she tells. “Lesina would remind me to believe in the good things and that they can happen.”
Lesina was surprised by Lily’s emotional intelligence, enthusing, “Every time I was thinking something, Lily would be thinking it too. It was nice to just have someone who I could say, ‘Oh my God, this happened’ and she goes, ‘I know.’”
While Lily admits Lesina has high standards and can be
critical when it comes to dating, the bubbly bachelorette is a great friend. “She’s really caring and sweet. When I broke down, she was over there with arms around me and knew exactly what I needed at the time, which was her,” Lily recalls. “Her empathy is amazing. She has a nice ability to understand and put herself in my shoes all the time.”
Lesina – who says Aaron McNabb, 27, and Logan Carr, 32, are lovely guys and she’s happy with her final decision – admits her sensitive nature is one reason reality TV’s not for her. “I take everything really personally and to heart. But I learned so much about myself.”
The last time she and Lily caught up was when they partied with the boys in Auckland after filming for AftertheFinalRose a few weeks ago. “We had a bit of a blowout to send the whole experience off and then Lesina was off to Australia,” says Lily, who has the hard decision of picking between Richie Boyens, 32, and Jesse Williamson, 24.
“I know Aaron and Logan adore Lesina and I’d love to see her happy in a relationship. We just want the best for each other. That’s all you ever want for your friends.”