Since Farmer Bert left Farmer Wants A Wife without finding love, rumours began to swirl that he struck up a romance with former contestant Lauren McNeil. Now, the 27-year-old has responded to the whispers.
“I know this will be disappointing for some to hear, but we are not together,” Lauren wrote on Instagram.
“Though Bert and I still talk and are friends, we have not seen each other since I left the farm that night.”
She went on to confirm she is still single, but is hopeful her “person is still out there”.
“I wish B all the best!” Lauren added. “Thanks for all the lovely words and overwhelming support. It’s been so unexpected but has meant the world to me.”
Lauren, a 27-year-old behaviour support practitioner from Queensland, left the farm after host Samantha Armytage revealed that each farmer’s mother had chosen more women to join the show.
“I’m really struggling,” Lauren told Bert at the time. “This whole process has been really hard for me. I’m not sure I can keep doing it, so I’ve packed my bags. I’m gonna go home. It’s just too much for me.”
While Bert was clearly upset with the decision, he said “don’t be a stranger” before focusing on his other connections with Karli, Brooke, and Caitlin.
Viewers of the show were devastated by the early departure, with one commenting on social media: “She never got a chance with him. Beautiful and so much class. He missed a good one there.”
Another added: “I reckon after the show they’ll get together.”
Farmer Bert decided to leave the show solo not long after Farmer Tom confessed his love for Sarah C.
Speaking with New Idea, the 30-year-old confessed the hours of work and filming eventually “became a bit much”.
“Along the way I lost a bit of love that I had for the farm, and that was my first priority,” he said.
While the pineapple farmer was “doing his best” to keep the farm chugging along in the background, he eventually reached a breaking point.
Frontrunner Karli confirmed this, telling us exclusively: “when the ‘Mother’s Pick’ arrived, Bert was just exhausted.”
She continued: “He was working a lot more than what the producers, and what the executives, thought.
“They tried to provide him with help but being the perfectionist that he is, he didn’t take a lot of that help onboard. We also changed over producers.
“He’s also had a lot going on with his family, I believe. I don’t know the full facts around that, but he’s had a bit going on there. He’s just mentally exhausted.”
For now, Bert’s priority appears to be the farm. That being said, he hasn’t closed himself off to love.
“You never know what’s around the next corner. Hopefully, at some point or another, I bump into that person that’s going to change my world. It’s never definitely off the table,” he told us.
“Right now, I am pretty bogged down; but hopefully there’ll be a bit of time off later in the year and we’ll see where that goes. When the time’s right, I’m sure it’ll happen.”
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