From the second the eight intruders walked into The Bachelor Australia mansion last week, Nichole was rattled.
“We saw all these girls and lost it,” Nichole, 25, tells TV WEEK. “I freaked out.
At the end of the day, you know there are going to be intruders, and the sooner the better, because the sooner you can get them out.”
But it was Monique more than anyone who had Nichole, 25, spiralling on set.
After claiming fashion designer Monique, 26, was just her “desperate doppelganger”, Nichole even went as far as to issue her a warning.
.png?resize=380%2C285)
“If she doesn’t get out of my way… she may pay for it!” she said at the time. “I’ll have a round [of boxing] with her if she wants. And if I accidentally punch her in the face… it was an accident.”
Nichole wasn’t impressed with the intruders.
Now, café manager Nichole hints that it was actually she who felt threatened.
“We all realised there was someone similar to us,” she explains. “Monique and I seemed to keep getting pinned against each other and it was the one thing that frustrated me.
“I was upset because I was constantly being told that we’re the same… [but] there’s more to us than just blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Meanwhile, Monique says she felt the tension almost immediately upon her arrival in the mansion.
“I heard different bits and pieces, like, ‘You’re Nichole’s doppelganger,'” she says. “But I don’t think we look anything alike – it would just be that we’re both a bit tomboyish. I don’t see her as competition.”
Monique is trying to keep her focus on Matt.
With the pair set to come head-to-head this week, Monique says she’s just focusing on scoring a single date with 31-year-old Bachelor Matt Agnew.
“I’m not too bothered about the other girls,” she says. “We’re all here for the same reason – we aren’t here to find a girlfriend.”
And while Matt appeared to be instantly smitten with Monique, he might have to put in a bit of work to win her over.
“We have a couple things in common, but I wasn’t sure,” she admits to TV WEEK. “He’s not the kind of guy I’d normally go for.”
The Bachelor Australia airs Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm on 10
