Their romantic TV love story came crashing down when Farmer Harry Robertson confessed on last week’s reunion episode he’d ended his relationship with Stacey Cain on Farmer Wants A Wife.
And while the Goolgowi, NSW, grape and cotton farmer, 29, insisted the couple’s decision to split was mutual, Stacey’s tears and stiff body language told a very different story.
Now, the country girl tells Woman’s Day just what really happened after the show’s finale, revealing she feels she was a “pawn” in Harry’s quest – not for love, but for fame.
“I feel like he totally used me,” Stacey tells Woman’s Day. “You can’t help but feel like you were being used to create a storyline on a TV show.”
“I feel like he totally used me,” Stacey admits.
(Channel Seven)
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During the reunion, Harry explained to host Natalie Gruzlewski that their constant bickering had made him pull back, yet the 28-year-old from Grovedale, Victoria, says the Harry fans saw on screen was different to the one she knew.
“Everything he said to the camera, he didn’t say to me. It was so strange to watch back,” she says. “I honestly saw a switch in him. He was super nervous and genuine, and as soon as the cameras came on he turned into a trained actor.
“The whole reason we broke up was around an argument that kept coming back up about me not wanting to watch the show. He kept saying, ‘Don’t you trust me?’ And I was like, ‘I just don’t want to relive it all,'” she adds.
“The funny thing is we spent that evening [of the reunion] together and in the morning we parted ways and he didn’t talk to me again,” she says.
“He’s made no attempt to call me.”
While Stacey walks away “disheartened” from the entire experience, she’s managed to make two close friends in Liz Jelley and Jess Wolfe, with the girls bonding over their TV heartbreak.
“I really feel for poor Liz and Jess, too,” she says.
Liz was left “ghosted” by Farmer Nick Onassis and Farmer Alex Taylor’s first pick Jess was kicked to the curb to make way for runner-up Henrietta Moore.
“We all walked away so disappointed – it felt like such a waste of time to go through all this, then as soon as the cameras stopped rolling it was like ‘OK, see you, bye,'” she adds.
Stacey says hindsight is a beautiful thing, and looking back on the show now, she feels the farmers may have had other intentions.
“They’re all just lapping up the fame,” she says. “I think I was very naive, along with Liz and Jess. We committed ourselves to these guys who didn’t really want to settle down with us. They have hundreds of women throwing themselves at them now.”
Stacey says hindsight is a beautiful thing, and she reckons the farmers may have had other intentions.
(Channel Seven)While still noticeably upset, Stacey says she’s relieved the show has finally finished and she can start to rebuild her life.
“I feel like they just pulled the cement truck off me,” she says. “Now I can breathe again.”
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