Former Bachelor star Blake Garvey has spoken out against ex-fiancée Samantha Frost and the producers of the TV show for casting him as the villain in the scandal that ensued following the show’s conclusion.
Perth-based real-estate agent Blake, 32, claims that it was actually Samantha Frost who suggested the pair “call things off.”
“We were just two people who weren’t happy at the end of the day and we both knew that, but there’s knowing it and doing something about it,” Blake told Fairfax media today.
Originally, Blake says he and Sam had planned to face the media together in a united front to announce that their doomed engagement was over. But in the weeks following the conclusion of filming, Blake says producers allowed Samantha to access her social media accounts while he was not.
That’s was when things turned against him.
“I saw that Sam tweeted something and so I asked if I could as well and they said, ‘Do not, don’t you dare’, because at that state they still had my accounts shut down. But they told me to trust them,” he said.
“That was the worst weekend of my life.”
Left: Blake and Sam on the set of The Bachelor in South Africa. Right: Blake with his new love Louise.
However, by the time the final show aired though, things had long since ended for Blake and Sam.
Blake claims that he was unable to defend his own character due to his contractual obligations with Network Ten, while Sam continued to tweet, posting the following:
“People need to stop asking why we broke up. Trust me, I’m just as in the dark as you all are.. Blake is the one calling all the shots here,” She tweeted at the time.
So why the alleged shift in Sam’s feelings? Blake claims: “She went and had a talk with her sister and her sister was annoyed because it was going to be embarrassing for her brothers and they’d be annoyed. From then things were a bit different. When we were back sitting in front of the producers and publicists and were asked what we wanted to do, she said, ‘It’s up to him’.”
Blake also pointed to his interview on Ten’s The Project as being a particularly humiliating moment for him, where he alleges he was banned from speaking the truth about his feelings for Louise and what was really going on.
Blake claims that The Project “were aware that things for Sam and I didn’t work out very early on after filming and that there was something happening with Louise but I was told I couldn’t talk about that in the first interview I did.”
“I came out of that interview just shell shocked, going, ‘What just happened? I couldn’t answer any of those questions so that’s not going to look great.”
A representative for the production company that produced the show, Shine Australia, wouldn’t respond to the specific allegations made by Blake, but issued the following statement to Fairfax.
“As part of our duty of care to all contestants on any of our shows who find themselves in the limelight we endeavour to provide options and advice. Whether that advice is taken — ultimately is up to the contestant.
“All reality show contracts include clauses on the participants ability to engage with the media, including social media. This is standard and exists as much to protect the contestants as it does the show.”
