Hearts broke across the country on Sunday night as Farmer Wants A Wife viewers watched Farmer Sam quit the show following two brutal blows – the death of his grandfather and after failing to form a reciprocal romantic connection with any of his chosen women.
After confessing his love to his frontrunner Sophie Pereira, the 28-year-old from the ACT revealed she sadly did not feel the same way, and asked to leave the show.
“I wish that it wasn’t the case, but you told me that you’d fallen in love with me and I haven’t fallen for you,” Sophie told Sam.
“I’m sorry, I feel sick and I’ve been thinking about this for days. There’s nothing I can say. I could never have imagined in a million years that I would be hurting you, but I think I should go home and I’d like to go home,” she said.
Sam told Sophie he was “shocked and stunned” by the news.
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“I don’t even know what to say. The world’s just crashing down,” he said.
“I literally thought you were quite perfect and then you gave me this bombshell today and you broke my heart into pieces. But that’s life, you can’t always get what you want.”
Sophie spoke to Now To Love about what it was like to watch the heartbreaking episode unfold onscreen, the conversation she wishes viewers got to see, whether she and Sam have been in contact since filming wrapped and an update on her current love life.
Keep on scrolling to read the full interview.
Sophie revealed she had not fallen in love with Sam.
(Image: Channel Seven)
Sam was left heartbroken by the news.
(Image: Channel Seven)How did it feel watching the episode back last night?
I was feeling a bit emotional after last night’s episode. It was probably tougher watching it back than I thought it might be.
It was awful situation in terms of Sam’s grandfather passing away, and obviously I wasn’t sure how the episode would look, but I actually think Channel Seven and production did a really good job of honouring what happened.
At what point did you realise you didn’t have strong feelings for Sam?
I think it would have been around the time he and [fellow contestant] Riley came back from their date. Then the dinner took place and Emily obviously had that conversation with him [Emily explained she did not have romantic feelings for Sam] and I already at that point wanted to let Sam know that I wasn’t in love with him as well.
So unfortunately it just played out that Emily needed to speak to him and Riley had that one-on-one date, so I couldn’t talk to him that night. The next day, his emotions were just really raw and then the day after, his grandfather passed away. It was a really hard few days for him.
The reason I had to do it at the time I did, was there would have been the event on that night, and obviously the farmers choose the girl for the one-on one date then. If I had not told him that morning, I would have had to tell him at the dinner right in front of everyone. It would have been horrible for him to have to hear that in front of everything else.
Otherwise, I would have had to wait until he picked me for the single date. There was honestly no good time to do it, it was a horrible situation.
Have you and Sam been in touch at all since you both left the show?
No. I messaged him just through social media after last night’s episode and prior to that I hadn’t contacted him. I just let him know I was thinking about him and his family and thinking what it would have been like for them to have to watch the episode.
Have you received a response from him?
No, no response yet.
Sophie (right) pictured with Sam’s other girls (L-R) Emily, Kirsten and Riley.
(Image: Instagram)
Sophie (centre, in red) pictured onset with Farmer Alex (left) and Farmer Sam (right), along with some of her fellow contestants.
(Image: Supplied)By the looks of things on social media, lots of the contestants have become quite good friends in real life, even with girls who were matched with other farmers. Were you surprised that you guys all got along so well?
I’m surprised at how much we’ve all kept it contact since the show and we’ve caught up outside of this and gone on little adventures and hung out with each other. We all live in different states, so now we all have friends around the country.
Outside of corona and not being able to see each other, we were all planning on having a premiere party with a few of us, but sadly that didn’t get to happen.
There’s always chatter about the amount of intervention producers have on reality TV shows and how much of the ‘drama’ is concocted. What was your experience with the show’s producers like?
I know what you mean. Even some of the feedback that I’ve been seeing is that a lot of [the show] seems staged or scripted, but most of it isn’t. The majority of what is going on in terms of the drama, is just taking place naturally.
I can’t really speak to what went on on the other farms, but what was going on with us and the fact that Kirsten left and there wasn’t the romances that were going on in the other farms.
I think that production actually handled it really well. Obviously, they would have preferred to get a love story out of it, but they didn’t step up and create the drama between Emily, Riley and myself just to get some excitement.
They realised we all got along really and well and thought they’d leave us to it.
Sophie says she is currently single.
(Image: Channel Seven)Some of the feedback on social media from both contestants and viewers has been that the show doesn’t actually reflect what happened during filming, or that some of the girls’ personalities are completely different in real life, away from the cameras. Do you think that’s true?
I think that there was probably some conversations between Sam and I that would have been important for the viewer to see that didn’t get shown. And thinking back, it made it look like I didn’t take any time to talk to him about how I was feeling.
But there was a long conversation that took place between Sam and I at the ball, where he said: ‘I’m falling in love with you’ and I said: ‘thank you, but I’m not there.’
A lot of my family and friends said ‘why was there nothing shown in such a long time? There were things that took place that didn’t get to air?’… I’m not sure what the reasoning was behind that.
Most of the feedback has been really positive, but watching it back, there were a few plot-holes.
Have you dated anyone since filming wrapped?
I am single right now. I took a break from dating after this happened. It took an emotional toll and it was such a huge thing to go through.
I’ve seen a couple of the other girls who have now been able to reveal their boyfriends, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that soon! I’d definitely love to fall in love.
Farmer Wants A Wife airs on Sundays at 7pm and Mondays at 7.30p on Ten.
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