Luke Bateman is playing different type of field than he is accustomed to, but as of 2023, he is bringing his “country charm” to The Bachelor Australia.
Luke is one of the three suitors looking for love alongside his fellow Bachelors Wes and Ben. But sporting fans may recognise Luke from his career as former NRL Canberra Raiders player.
Luke is now a lumberjack in regional Queensland.
(Image: Instagram)The 28-year-old competed with the Raiders until 2019 when his football career came to an end after a knee injury.
“Football was hindering me from moving on to the next period of life,” he previously told TV WEEK. “It made me realise I wanted to travel, meet someone and start a family, and football took up a lot of my time. I needed to invest that time in other areas of my life.”
Surprisingly Luke isn’t the first sporting star searching for love on The Bachelor, he has followed in the footsteps of Nick ‘The Honey Badger’ Cummins and Felix Von Hofe.
Luke used to play in the Canberra Raiders.
(Image: Getty)Despite the rough nature of NRL, Luke is an absolute softie off the field with an inclination for poetry, his favourite past time is “reading books with a good cuppa handy.”
Following his football career, the regional Queensland-born Bachie is now a lumberjack looking for his “perfect” girlfriend.
“The perfect partner to me is someone who accepts imperfection and is the person who I know I can always count on and laugh with no matter what life is dishing up,” he revealed to Ten.
“Also, someone who values their health and wellbeing both physically and mentally.”
The young Bachie is stealing hearts.
(Image: Instagram)Love hasn’t been an easy journey for Luke after his long-term relationship, to which he was engaged to, ended in complete “heartbreak.”
“I was very heartbroken after we split and I don’t think I realised how much it affected me. I probably wasn’t over that relationship as quickly as I thought I was. But you have to have hope you’ll find someone. If you lose hope, you lose everything,” he told TV WEEK.
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