Losing five close family members – including his mum, whose funeral was just six days before filming began for The Bachelorette Australia – inspired Danny, 39, to ditch his career as a federal police officer. He’s now pursuing his dream of becoming a chiropractor, and finding love would be the icing on the cake.
Danny is grateful he had the chance to show his mum a picture of Ali before she passed away.
“Mum said she was beautiful,” Danny tells TV WEEK.
“She was really excited for me. It brought her a lot of joy that I was really trying to find someone. She was very encouraging of it all.”
Danny reveals that, though he kept his loss to himself in the mansion, Ali was aware of what had happened. He says that was part of the reason Ali brought him outside to say goodbye, instead of keeping him at the rose ceremony in last night’s episode.
“I wasn’t surprised I was sent home, I knew we had a strong friendship but we didn’t have that chemistry. I understand that, and I respect her decision,” he says.
“I buried my mum six days before I met Ali on the red carpet and so I went in to this with a very heavy heart,” Danny tells TV WEEK. ” I just had a broken heart. But I kept it to myself because I didn’t want to be seen as a sob story, but Ali knew.
“So [Ali taking me outside] was a huge sign of our friendship and it meant the world to me that she did that, because she didn’t want to see me get my heart broken again.”
Over the past two years, Danny has also mourned the loss of his grandparents and uncle.
In 1996, his brother Bradley died at the age of 16 after being crippled following complications during a lumbar puncture.
Understandably, Danny says these experiences have given him a new “perspective”.
“I just want to be present for my wife,” he says.
The Bachelorette Australia airs Wednesday and Thursday, 7:30pm, on Network Ten.
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