Dasha Gaivoronski was sent home from The Bachelor Australia tonight, just one episode before the show’s hometown visits.
She did not receive a rose from Nick Cummins, though she claims to have been relieved by his decision to let her go.
“If I had gotten a rose I might have walked out because, to be honest, when I wasn’t handed the rose I surprisingly felt relieved,” says Dasha, 32.
“I immediately saw that it was such a perfect time. I wouldn’t have been able to do it for even another day.”
Why was Dasha so relieved to be sent packing? She missed her five-year-old son Leon. More than that, she didn’t believe Nick was ready to settle down for her family.
“It wasn’t just missing Leon, honestly, it was also watching Nick. I feel like he just got a little bit tired of the whole process and it was really hard to figure out exactly what he wants. He kept telling different things to different girls,” Dasha tells TV WEEK. “Leon is my life. We [Nick and I] are just at totally different stages in our life, and I’m looking for someone who will still be there in ten years’ time.
“He never told me that he doesn’t want kids, or that he wasn’t ready to settle down, or that he wants to travel more. I only heard that from all the other girls. I felt a little bit… uneasy. What I thought he was looking for, he probably wasn’t even considering it.”
Dasha found it difficult to be away from Leon, though was willing to put in the time for the sake of love.
“In the long run it would have been worth it if I found the man I was meant to end up with,” she says. “But I think because, deep down I knew Nick was not the person I was going to end up with, I was doubting myself.
“Looking back I can see that I should have walked away straight after that last one-on-one time,” Dasha confesses.
“But in the process of the show you’re away from your family, you’re completely isolated from the outside world, and you think of things so differently. It becomes your whole life,” she says.
“But now being my normal self, looking back, I would slap myself in the face and say ‘what are you doing there? Just stand up and go.'”
The Bachelor Australia airs Wednesday and Thursday, 7:30pm, on Network Ten.