When Jessica Brody’s elimination from Bachelor in Paradise aired on Aussie television, she was inundated with messages.
People from all corners of the country reached out to the reality star and model as she was unceremoniously dropped by resident fraterniser Ciarran Stott – who had switched his sights to newcomer Kiki Morris in true, snake-like fashion.
The brutal feat led to her subsequent exit from the Fijian Bachie land – but Jess’ fan-base has never been stronger.
“I’ve literally not been able to read all my messages,” she tells Now To Love the morning after her elimination.
“I’ve been inundated with loving messages from amazing people. It’s just been so overwhelming. I’m very grateful that people can see I was genuine and there for the right reasons.”
But that doesn’t quell the fact that Jess definitely bore the brunt of the nasty side to the popular franchise.
Of course, finding love is ~supposedly~ everyone’s top priority on the show, though what they’ll do to attain said love is a whole other ball game.
And according to Jess, her former fling Ciarran is case in point.
We chat to her about his real intentions on the show, what surprised her the most and how she’s moved on since filming.
Now To Love: Jess! What a rollercoaster episode last night. How are you feeling after seeing it go to air?
Jess: It was pretty intense to watch, especially because I never saw all things that were happening when I wasn’t there.
I was quite surprised at how flippant Ciarran was in his comments about me -I didn’t realise that it was such a non-thing to him. I thought our connection was mutual.
Have you spoken to Ciarran since the show wrapped filming?
I have spoken to Ciarran quite a lot actually, we run in the same circles here in Melbourne and there’s no bad blood. We’re on a mutual ground now.
Fans have slammed Ciarran’s behaviour on the show given how much he’s jumped around women – what do you have to say to that? Do you think it was unfair?
Well I feel like the reason I’ve had so many messages is because every woman has had a similar situation that they relate to with a guy. We’ve all had the wool pulled over our eyes at some point.
It’s unfortunate but at the end of the day I’m not going to shame Ciarran for exploring his options. He’s more than welcome to pursue other people. It’s just the behaviour of leading me on that was hard.
I do believe that he had a plan prior to filming that he wanted to get with Kiki all along – and it does suck to be a pawn in the game.
How are you feeling now you’re moving on? Any other love interests?
Well it’s a bit hard with COVID as I’m in a complete lockdown in Melbourne, but I do have a slight crush on this guy I found on TikTok. It seems ridiculous obsessing over a random [guy] who lives in America but he does follow me on Instagram so that’s the first step!
Let’s talk about the other couples left in Paradise – who do you reckon will go the distance?
I think everybody is shipping Alisha and Glenn – and I can see that. To be honest though I was in my relationship bubble with Ciarran a lot so I didn’t even see these relationships happening.
But it’s been nice to watch it back and see [Alisha and Glenn’s] love blossom so we’ll see what might develop with that.
I also had the double date with Mary and Conor and I could see chemistry so something might happen there.
Is there anything else that you think has was left unsaid that you’d like to say now?
I just want to ask for the people watching Bachelor in Paradise to not leave nasty comments on social media – we’re all people at the end of the day and what you see on the show is just a fraction of who we are.
WATCH: Kiki Morris arrives on Bachelor in Paradise:
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