When down-on-one-knee Blake Garvey declared his (short-lived) love for Sam Frost, we were left scratching our heads. Just like that time ‘cool bananas’ Richie Strahan rendered Alex Nation a mascara-streaming mess on national television when we all willed for him to pick Nikki Gogan.
But when it came to Matty J falling for Laura Byrne on last year’s season of The Bachelor, all our faith in the Bachelor Mansion, Osher’s blazers and the notion that love can be found on reality TV were restored.
Because, like a lady and a cat, Matty and Laura, simply put, are a match made in Bachie heaven.
A little less than a year since Matty told Laura he loved her, too (!!!), this Married At First Sight-loving, pho-bingeing reality-TV couple are as loved up as ever. Our proof? Well, Laura told us so herself.
“When someone is really good to you – they make your life easier, not harder,” she reveals during an exclusive photoshoot with OK!. “Matt definitely makes my life so much easier.”
Yep, in a time when made-for-TV relationships are dissipating faster than you can say MAFS (RIP Sarah and Telv), Matty and Laura continue to go the distance. Here, Laura tells us why.
What it was REALLY like competing for Matty’s heart
There were times in The Mansion that you would doubt yourself. Like, there were other girls on the show that had similar experiences with Matty as I had and they’d come home and say, “I had the most beautiful date with him, there’s no way that it can’t be me.”
Everyone else feels the same way that you feel so you question everything that you’ve experienced in your time. There was never a time where I felt cocky or confident that it was me. But I knew that he was worth trying, to see where it would go.
I think I just got to a point where I was like, well I’m old enough and I know myself enough to know that if it doesn’t work out I will be OK in the long run, and I’m not going to sacrifice who I am to win because it’s not about winning. It’s not Survivor. You don’t win $500,000 – you win a boyfriend.
And if it’s not going to work out – I don’t want to win a crappy boyfriend. So, that’s my prize. I wanted it to work and that’s the only reason I stuck around because I thought he was a great guy.
On life with Matty after The Bachelor
It’s been a year since filming ended but less than a year since we were in Thailand and he said “You da one” and I was like “What!? It’s me!?” It’s a new normal. My life before didn’t include a boyfriend so I was quite independent.
Before the show, as a person, I wasn’t really ‘out-there’ and I had come to terms with being more open. I had also been in some pretty shitty relationships – just being in them didn’t make me happy.
So this one is just easy and good and I get to be happy every day! Because when someone is really good to you – they make your life easier, not harder. Matt definitely makes my life so much easier.
We don’t go out that often and we don’t go to a lot of events. It’s very once in a blue moon that we go out. We sit at home on the lounge and eat pho and talk about Married At First Sight.
On starting a family with her Bachie beau
We are definitely both on the same page and we both definitely want to have kids. That’s not a grey area; we both know what we want.
Amelia [Matty’s niece] is so beautiful, and Matt’s family are super inclusive of me and let me be a part of that so I feel like I’m an aunty already. My sister is about to have a baby too so… All in its own time, but it’s definitely something that we want.
On why her relationship with Matty has made it this far
I think we were really lucky from the get-go in that neither of us had to force it. It could have had potential to be really difficult – even in the media, certain things came out that weren’t nice and weren’t true. He was so supportive of me and stood by me through everything.
He said, ‘I chose you because I love you and I want to be with you.’ And that made everything else go away. Things became really easy really quickly because we were so committed to being together and the rest of it, the fluff, the media, it wasn’t important.
To catch Laura in fashionable, get-fit action, check out our fitness-inspired photoshoot with her in the latest issue of OK! magazine, on sale now!
Photography: Paul Suesse/Bauer media. Styling: Maya Wyszynski. Hair and make-up: Jaclyn Hnitko. Fashion assistant: Aimee Bruce.
