She may be coming off the back of a painful and public break up, but Brooke Blurton isn’t going to stop dating.
“I’m not giving up on love just yet!” she exclusively tells Now To Love over the phone. “I feel like that journey is still an open door.”
Brooke Blurton says she’s still open to love after a difficult six months.
(Image: Instagram)The 27-year-old split from Bachelorette winner Darvid Garayeli in the early days of January 2022 and was blindsided when he shared the news publicly on Instagram.
At the time she tried to keep details about their relationship ending private, but more recently Brooke confessed to NITV that she felt Darvid wanted to “humiliate” her by going public with their split.
While she doesn’t want to keep discussing her past relationships – “We move on. We digress,” she laughs – Brooke admits she’s grown as a result of the complicated break up.
“I think I’ve come out of this a much more confident version of myself and realising that I need to really take the time to incorporate a bit more self-love,” she tells us.
“Maybe something will happen around the corner, but I’m not putting so much pressure on myself [to find love].”
In fact, Brooke will be heading to Mardi Gras as part of her partnership with Oral-B for their #SmileWithLove initiative, and she has an encouraging message for any queer women still nursing a crush on her.
“If I get a beautiful smile from someone who is gorgeous [at Mardi Gras] and I feel like I want get to know them, then absolutely I have the confidence to see if they would want to,” Brooke says with a cheeky laugh.
And if you’re lucky enough to score a date with Brooke in the future, here’s how you’ll be able to tell it’s going well.
“If my cheeks hurt from smiling, it’s a good date. And if it’s not the case, then I definitely wouldn’t be going on a second date,” the 27-year-old reveals.
You can hear the smile in her voice as she talks lightheartedly about dating and it’s a refreshing change after the pressure Brooke faced on her season of The Bachelorette in 2021, and on social media after the show finished airing.
Brooke made the most of Mardi Gras in years past and plans to do the same in 2022.
(Image: Instagram)Not only was she dealing with the demands of finding “The One” on national TV, she also carried the weight of being the first openly queer and First Nations Bachelorette.
It was a role that weighed heavily on the “petrified” star, but now she’s out the other side Brooke more certain of herself and her identity than ever.
“I’m learning to not be so hard on myself, having a lot more self-gratitude and a lot more self-acceptance,” she says.
The proud Noongar-Yamatji woman then adds: “I feel like that wasn’t always necessarily the case for me growing up.”
Growing up in poverty in Carnarvon, Western Australia, Brooke endured the tragedy of her mother’s death by suicide when she was just 11.
WATCH: Brooke Blurton opens up on grief. Story continues after video.
It had a deep and lasting effect on her, as did other hardships in her youth, but Brooke says her family remains one of the most important parts of her life.
“My family, they’re amazing. They don’t get it sometimes; they don’t get what I do,” she laughs, referring to her career as a reality star and social influencer.
“Sometimes they ask [funny] questions, but they really love the messages that I’m putting out. They know that’s always been something that I’ve wanted to; to be the role model that I never had.”
That means being open and proud about her identity as a bisexual First Nations woman, knowing that her confidence can help inspire other queer Australians to find their own.
In the meantime, Brooke will be gearing up for her “really exciting” guest role on Neighbours, so keep an eye out for her on your TVs again.
