Welcome To Life Uncut

Well, you guys asked for it, So here we are delivering our very first podcast.

Brittany, how many people exactly asked for this? Okay, full disclaimer, less than ten? You got ten, I didn't get any. But anyway, here we are, and we're here to talk to you a little bit about relationships, dating love.

Got a bit of reality TV in there.

A little bit of life, just a little bit of our personal opinions.

Well, I mean, we were having these chatty conversations over breakfast, and it was actually Britt who was the one who decided that maybe we should put some of these thoughts down and.

Start a podcast.

So, Britt, what makes you think that you have any qualifications to give dating advice?

Look, I don't know if you saw the end of my Bachelor series. Yeah, that's why I'm asking, babe.

I don't know if that makes me overqualified or underqualified, but it definitely gives me an opinion.

No. Look, I have a bit of a dating history single long time, and I started to get a lot of.

People writing to me and asking questions personally after that experience, So I thought, I'm just going to have to put pen to paper, voice to microphone and get it out there, But I mean, that's my story.

Why are you here?

Oh I'm completely unqualified to give dating advice, but that will not stop me. I look, prior to dating mat and to our relationship being where it is now, Yeah, I had some pretty colorful dating experience, and I feel really passionately about going through breakups and going through ups and downs and relationships, that they can have, breakups can have really positive outcomes for people, and that it should be treated as a learning experience to be able to

Yeah, I think that breakups these days and going through a really tough time has a bit of a negative connotation to it, But I agree, and I don't think it has to. I think we can learn a lot and it shapes us into who we are today. So I think it'd be nice to put a different spin on it and learn some things and speak to different people and just get a different view on things.

Yeah.

I mean, it is incredibly painful and it is incredibly difficult, but I think that from some of the most challenging aspects of life is where we do our best growth, and I think that it also sets us up for making better decisions in the future. So yeah, it's nice to be here and to be able to chat about these things. Yeah, definitely, So Britt, we had very very different experiences on The Bachelor. Why did you do it? Why did I do it? The million dollar question?

To be honest, I have two best friends and I have been single for a very long time, seven years, and they had been pushing me to go on The Bachelor years ago, I think maybe season five, and I just thought, no way, no way, no way, and they kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and I just said, you know what, I'm going on around the world trip.

If I come back in three years and I'm thirty years.

Old and I'm still single, which, mind you, I absolutely did not think was going to happen. I thought I was going to go meet the man of my dreams in some foreign country. I thought, if I come back, I'm going to apply for the Bachelor.

Yeah, and you came back and you would any still single and you were like, I'm going on.

A Bachelor thirty I was still single, and I was like, sign me out, baby, I'm going.

On I think I was pretty similar in my reasoning for going on the show as well, although I didn't I didn't really do it thinking I would meet someone.

Very very happy that I did. Oh you didn't. You actually didn't think you would.

Well, I meet the match such a model dating life in Sydney as it was, and I'd found dating really challenging that I kind of did it more as a bit of a joke. Not a joke that's probably a bit harsh, but more of experience. Yeah, for the experience, And I thought, you know, i'd make some friends. If by some wild chance I met an amazing guy, then like that would be what a wonderful story that would be.

But I didn't have any expectations around it.

I've been in and out of some really difficult relationships and I think I just wanted a break from it all and then I got my happy ever after outcome.

Just backtrack a little bit. You have told me this over coffee, but you have quite an interesting sort of sign up story, don't you, Because you were not sold ongoing on The Bachelor.

Oh yeah, no, my sign up story. So I didn't actually sign myself up. My two housemates at the time were the ones who put my name down, and it was done over a drunken Mexican fiesta.

Well, obviously the best ideas come from drunken Mexican fiestas.

And they entered me.

They did the application process, which I don't know if anyone who's listening has actually applied for The Bachelor. It's a very lengthy It takes about forty five minutes to an hour to actually answer all the questions.

So I was really lucky my housemates did that for me.

And then a couple of months later, I got a phone call from the producers asking me if I wanted to come in an audition. And at the time I didn't really think I wanted to go on it. I hadn't really processed it. But as I got closer and closer and closer to it actually happening, I kind of ebbed between yes and no, yes and no, and eventually I was there. I mean I was late, everyone else was already in lockdown, and I showed up the next day, just casually strolled in.

But better late than never.

But maybe that is the secret, not overthinking something, not putting any expectations on it, just thinking I'm going to risk it for the biscuit. Let's turn up and see what happens.

Yeah. Absolutely, I do think that there is.

Like, you can't be set for disappointment if you don't have any expectations on something, and if you're approaching something with a more casual like outlook on it. I think that that's why it wasn't until i'd spend a bit more time in the mansion that I actually felt like I was getting really invested in the process because I hadn't been hung up on it working out for me.

And also, you saw Matt's abs, so you're like, oh, yeah, I'm invested.

I am here for this. Let's be real, Laura. Yeah, he's got some pretty good abs. Still, I'm like me at the moment, that's for sure.

Oh yeah, I would just like to make a comment to what I'm looking at right now.

So the dream is what she means, I look like the dream.

So Laura is sitting opposite me.

She's just come from work, she has just finished to work out late last night.

She's also nine months pregnant.

I am most pregnant people at this point in time their pregnancy would be out winding back and sitting on the couch, just you know, enjoying the last few moments that they're going to get without a baby attached to them. And I've decided I'll start a podcast. Yeah, three days out, so I'm literally just.

Now googling how to deliver a.

Baby, just in case, please don't, please just strat me to the hospital if that happened.

So this, this podcast has.

Been recorded a little bit in advance, purely because there is the potential that I may drop a child very soon.

Yeah, we did want to get the ball rolling. We had this idea, and we just thought, let's get this first episode down now so that you can go off and have your baby and peas and then we'll continue from there.

So well, it's one of those things, isn't it.

You have these these bright ideas and these conversations and then they never come into fruition.

However, with Brittany, it was a It.

Was a sort of a spark of an idea over breakfast, and within an hour of me getting home, she was like, so we're recording a podcast and I've booked us in and this is the name, and.

We're ready to go. So it made it really.

Difficult to say, no, I am here, So I actually no, to be fair, I did say, look, were you really into this or did you want to semi pull out?

Because you can do that now, and you're like, babes, I'm already googling.

I was already too far invested. I was already sitting in the chair when she said that you're in. You've got, You've got, we've got our name already.

You're a soul.

So I want to know a little bit about your experiences on The Bachelor and how they differed from what my experiences were.

I mean, we're going back. Mine was a little while ago.

Now it was two years that yours was the most recent show that we've had, and we arguing up for a new season as well. So tell me like a little bit about what your dating life was before the.

Show and why did you go on.

Okay, So I have been single seven years and I had had two serious long term relationships. My first partner eight years wonderful man. Still can't fault him. But I was young, and it's that young relationship where it's all consuming but your babies, and we just grew apart.

My next relationship was.

To be honest, very destructive, very abusive, in multiple ways.

It did not end well. And they're they're fun relationships, aren't they. Yeah, that's the thing.

I think we've all had that experience, and so many women and men but have had that experience, and I think it'll be nice to touch on that later and bond over some stories. But after that ended, I just needed to go and find myself, live my life for me, and I just thought I wasn't going to waste any more time unless I thought something could be the big ending, the happy ending, and I just hadn't found that.

So I've dated a lot, a lot. I essentially, I like the emphasis on that.

I think I'm a wife old dating monk. If there is such a thing, well, I mean I think that comes part and parcel. If you've spent seven years on your own, are going to you know, be in that dating world and be meeting lots of different types of people. But it's important and also figuring out who's your type of person, exactly.

What you want, who you want, and how you want that to happen. So, I mean, there are a thousand stories that we will share over that seven year period.

But let's fast forward seven years.

Later, three years around the world, thirty years old, still single. So I just thought, I have zero to lose and it's my next big adventure, so I'm going to sign up for the Bachelor.

So there I was. But I believe you've got a bit of a different dating history.

Well, I guess. I mean I am quite an independent person. However, when it has come to my dating past, I have been very codependent in my relationships. I honestly haven't had a big stint in my life where I've been single.

I really have sort.

Of monkey branched and I hate that term, and I hate that I even did it, but a monkey branch in a relationship to relationship, and I think that that really came from a deep seated need to be loved and to be valued. And I got a lot of my self worth from feeling like somebody wanted me. It did mean that I spent a lot of time in relationships that weren't good relationships and with people who didn't treat me properly. You know, not to say that they

Everyone should sign up for the show. We did. We didn't say it up like us.

Oh yeah, we did say that this was not going to be a Bachelor podcast, and we will just sort of touch on it from here and there.

We will do some we will do some.

Bachelor recaps when the new season does start. However, we just wanted to be able to bring to you a little bit of information about us and some background on who we are and why we did the show originally, and how we even came to meet each other.

Laura, good call, this isn't going to be a Bachelor reality TV podcast.

I'm out of here.

I don't know if you know that. That's all we were talking about. That's all I've got in my life. Oh no, look, it's of course we're going to touch on it. It is our history, and I have zero regrets at all. Actually, I do want to say that I have zero regrets. I loved my experience.

We can't ever really get away from that. There's a reason we're here together now, and that's because we had this shared experience. Yes, we will recap the Bachelor Saker for reality TV. Let's just put that out on the table there right now. I might love the stuff. I used to hate it.

I used to think reality TV sucked, and now I'm born again Illuminati for reality TV.

I have listened to your Marriti first site.

And also the fact that I'm soon going to be pinned under a newborn child, or mean that I have.

So much time to spend in front of the TV.

Definitely, but no, Actually, you may be thinking, how did we meet it's a common misconception that everybody in reality TV comes friends and joins this cult.

Well, that's eactly. That's because they're all hanging out together on the Daily Mail. It's not a misconception. Everyone seems to know each other.

Well, I to be fair, don't I do not know anyone else from other seasons except you, and that is honest. And how we met is actually an interesting story. So it was sort of the last maybe two weeks week of my season as it was airing and things started to really heat up. I was having quite a hard time.

With the media, and people on social media can be horrible.

Yeah, I think to give a bit of context to this, there was an episode on Britney's season where she had confronted Cass about something that had happened.

Cass had been dating Nick in the real world and.

Britt had Britt had confronted her to ask her, you know, what the extent of their relationship was, and it was

Yeah, so yeah, we Cas and I did have this conversation. And just to put this out there, Cass and I were like sisters and best friends from the first episode

Because of this.

It was nine point thirty PM. That's why she didn't wake up. That episode airs during the daytime.

I get a message from Laura. Now I don't know Laura, obviously I know of her. I get a message from her saying, I.

Slid into a DM's guy. Oh, she was the first person that swit into my dance. Actually, still haven't gotten lucky points for trying.

I get this message and it just says, hey, love, Look, you don't know me, and I have no ulterior motive for this, but I'm going to say I know exactly what you're doing right now. You haven't gotten out of bedding in three days. You have food wrappers all over the floor. You think the world hates you, You think your life is never going to get better. You have been in tears. You're not sleeping because you're monitoring your social media and thinking the whole world is about to employ.

Yeah, well look, I mean I just want to I want to correct you on one thing, okay, because the world didn't hate you, and the world didn't hate me.

It just feels like it at the time.

You know, you could receive five hundred amazing complimentary messages on Instagram and you might get one trolley message where someone tells you that your shit and you should go kill yourself, and that's what that message that really hurts your feelings.

So I think I wanted.

To reach out to you when you were in that situation because I had experienced that the year prior, and also Alex Nation had reached out to me when I was in that situation, and I felt I actually still never met Alex in real life, but I just felt so great that there was somebody else who actually understood how I was feeling at that point in time. And I wanted you to know that there was somebody else out there who knew how you were feeling.

And I am so grateful for that. Honestly, it was really life saving at that point. And I feel like, just heads up, if you're listening the winner of the twenty nineteen Bachelor, I'll probably be reaching out to you.

Do you know who it is? They've finished filming.

We actually know nothing, so any recapts or anything that we do come to you just from our spidery senses.

No.

But I feel like it's one of those things that you pass on every year. So I feel like at some point I'm going to have to reach out as well. Do my Yeah, absolutely, I think that there's a due diligence when you've been in that position before. And the problem is is, you know, you go on these reality TV shows and people think, well, you signed up for it, like you opened yourself up for all this bullying and you made your life public. But no one really makes

Don't know until you know. I like that saying yeah, you know, but you don't you don't know.

I mean, we still don't know what are we Doingritt, tell me a little bit about what was different from your experience than mine. I mean, I know that we were in completely different Bachelor mansions. Tommy, what did you guys eat, as in like when you weren't on camera, did you cook? Did you get a will Worst delivery like we did? Like?

How did it work?

Oh?

You were willl Worth?

Now we were coals. I think we were cols too. We were actually on an avocado band, but then I found out the avocado saga.

I feel like that's every year, every pasion has an avocado saga.

So the way it worked for us was that was that we had a weekly allowance to split between all the girls, so our grocery shop had to be less than the weekly allowance, and obviously things like avocados a datium expensive, so everyone couldn't And there was also a cyclone at the time that had wiped out a lot of the avocado stock. I don't know why I'm getting so into this, but really it ruled our.

Life for quite rate. Avocado cyclone of twenty seventeen. This is true. This is very very true. So we were all put on an avocado band. But you know what, we actually had it really easy.

We used to do big cookups as the girls, like as a group. We had like big family dinners. We had pizza nights. It was like being on holidays. It was bloody great. Sometimes it was sort of like being on a resort with some of your closest girlfriends.

So yeah, we it's actually that's a really common question. People ask me what did you eat? And I'm like, you can ask me anything about the Bachelor, and that's what you want to know, and they really do well.

I think it's because there's also this misconception that like all the girls put on heaps of weight while we're in there because there's nothing to do except eat chocolate, and there really is that you have free rein over everything, and so it's quite hard to stay in shape. Also, what was your gym like? Because your gym is shit as ours? Yeah, so a funny story. Our gym was actually we had some petal packers. I don't know if you saw that we our packers.

Yeah, I did say.

That our gym was the ol packer sat that they had just ripped out the hay and then put some equipment in there.

So it was quite small.

Look it has what you needed, but it was Jim is a stretch of a term.

Ours was a garage, like literally a garage that had a treadmillion it and some weights facing the wall.

Yeah, facing the door.

There was also a rat that lived in there too, but we don't we're not going to get into that. But I remember, so we had we had different kettlebells, like different weights, and I went down there to do and workout this one day and all of the heavy weights had been taken and I found out it was macause Matt had requested that he have all of the weights over sixteen kilos. So I threw a little tanny and got our weights back. I was like, it is not acceptable.

Good for you. I need to squat God, damn it. So anyway, so I mean.

The bachelor definitely gets to rule the roost of the of the bachelor the mansion, and that's for sure.

Yeah.

So we also just had a big yard that we would literally run around in circles like hamsters. So people think, if you do think that we're allowed to go out for a run or a walk, you don't. You don't leave give the mansion ever unless you're on a date.

Oh yeah, there's no, there's no leave.

Actually, do you know what, I did get a pass out to leave, so so people don't get to leave them once you're in lockdown and you're in lockdown and you don't leave, you don't have access to your phone, you don't have access to calling your family. The only time that you're able to call your family is once for fifteen minutes I think every.

Two weeks on a monitored phone call.

Yeah, so your minder will listen in and make sure that there's nothing that you're talking about that could give away any aspect of the show. And also they also listened in to make sure that your family isn't telling you things that could make you want to leave as well.

So it does go both ways.

But I well, I was able to leave a few days after I was in lockdown, and it was purely because I had to attend a funeral.

Even for that, I was chaperoned by a minder to the funeral.

I was like they waited for me at the funeral, and then as soon as it was finished, I couldn't go the wake or anything to get back in the car and go straight back. And and so everything is monitored really really severely. Yeah, it's good though, I mean it needs to be done. It has to be It keeps the privacy and it keeps the.

Ending, the surprise, magicke and the excitement and the surprise.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So and what about so you and I, in case people didn't know we had different mansions, what were your sleeping arrangements?

Like, oh, we have like a dorm room.

Well, I think you will mention was bigger than ours, though, yeah, I've actually seen your mansion, so I did hear that secret squirrel?

So well that's for another time.

So our mansion was two quite big, oh, three quite big rooms, and all the girls were in bunk beds in the room. So in my room it was actually fourteen girls all.

In bunk beds.

And then obviously that dwindled down as the roses kind of also dwindled. But but yeah, it was like being on school camp, which was probably one of the funnest parts and also the most difficult parts of the whole.

Thing as well.

It's funny because I think, might I had a room of maybe one, two, twelve, and you don't think about that when you go into the mansion. But what mansion is going to have We had thirty women all up? What mansion is going to have thirty rooms?

Did you have thirty women in your season?

Yeah, we had the biggest season ever. And then once the intruders still couldn't pick anyone.

Yeah, well, come on, man, I don't know or what it says about us.

I'm going to say more about Nick, But yeah, it's not a reflection of you guys. That's definitely just certain. What was your expectation of it versus what the reality?

You know, going into the show, What did you expect it to be like versus what it really was like?

Yeah, I don't know if I had too many expectations. I knew I was going to have a lot of fun. I didn't. Actually when I met Nick on the Red Carpet, that was the first time I thought, when I realized how much we have in common and I cans and were born in the same place, I thought, oh my god, maybe I actually will meet someone on here. I didn't really know going into that. All I knew was I was going to have fun. I didn't know if I

Do people have a game plan? Yeah? No, they did the same to me.

Actually, thinking back, they wanted they like something gimmicky on the red carpet.

Yeah, they want you to go in there and bring a giar door.

Oh, I said something ridiculous about cobbloaf I can't even remember. I just I blanked they originally they I'm Laura Cobblo I pretty much what I said. It still surprises me to this day that he chose me.

I was.

They encouraged me to try and bring a piece of jewelry. Sure, they wanted me to make something special for him, and they wanted me to give it to him on the red carpet. But for me, jewelry is something that's such a personal gift. And I didn't know him at all, and I also didn't know even if he would wear a ring.

Or wear a car.

So I really pushed back on that, and then they said, you need to do something, like you have to stand out. And so I had told the producers that I was going to walk down the red carpet.

I was going to pick a little flower, and I was going to be like.

Hey, I didn't want to show up empty handed and give him this flower. And as I'm sitting in the limo about to get out, the producer asked me, like, what was I going to do? And I told her my plan. She said, oh, you can't do that. Someone did that on another season. Oh I had that, and I had no idea, And so here I am three seconds before.

Getting out of the car.

I had my lines little planned and so then they're like, okay, get out of the car now.

So I jumped out of the car and I walked up to.

Him and I was like, hey, hey, I didn't want to show up empty handed.

Maybe I should have brought a cobblo.

Oh my gosh, I feel like I need to go and watch.

That back creaking idiot.

Anyway, I still and I looked like I was on crack because I was so high on adrenaline, Like I was jacked on adrenaline that my eyes are pretty much popping out of my head so look, you know what, we got past the first encounter and things got better from there.

Well obviously because any day now there's baby coming.

Yeah, it's all happening, It really really is.

No.

I actually I actually took him fortune cookies yep. And in each fortune cookie was a different color, and in each fortune colored fortune cookie was a different fortune. Obviously my favorite color had the best fortune. And I did this because didn't show this, Okay, so they didn't, But what they showed was me with all these little boxes holding them, and I got so many questions after saying what was in the box, So if anyone wants to know, that's what it was.

And for some reason they cut that out. Did you try and tell him that his fortune would be with you? Essentially? I was like, I see someone named Brittany.

No, I did not, and these are your lucky numbers, but.

You know, full transparency. He actually did pick my favorite fortune, my favorite color, and my favorite fortune, but that didn't really work out well for me.

Well, actually, just remembering back on your series, britt because I really did watch it all, I remember that finale episode and I remember Nick when he said to you, and he also said to Sophie very famously that he wasn't going to choose either of you.

I remember you just seeming so.

Calm, so like unaffected by it, and I know that probably that was a defense mechanism, but yeah, why didn't you kind of try and ask him some more questions?

Or why didn't you.

You react in a bit more of a way that I think I would have been throwing things out, like.

Maybe more emotional. Yeah, so I got this.

Question a lot on the medium trail after for those that haven't seen it. Essentially, Nick sort of let Sophie go and let her think that it was me, and then when my time came, he gave me a very big speech and let me down. You know, so your heart breaks in that moment. But I didn't cry. I didn't ask any questions, and I just said is that all? And then said good luck and walked away. And I think their producer told me I was the first person ever on the Bachelort to not cry once. But I

I'm very much a person where where.

I if somebody hurts my feelings, I'm like, I'm fine, I don't care. And then when I've had time to think about it, I'm like.

Ohk oh.

And I cared so much, and deep down later on I thought maybe you should have asked him why more, only because I didn't understand it. We got along so well and we had so much in common, we had the greatest time. I couldn't understand how that connection wasn't there for him to want to explore. Still didn't really want to beg him or ask why, you know, Oh, surface level, I just thought it's a no.

I'm out.

But yeah, we did speak later on, and he I hold nothing against Nick at all, he's a great guy. He just the wrong time, wrong situation. But things could

It's hard to take things not personally though, of course when it's happening at the time.

Yeah, especially when you're invested in you're in love.

Yeah.

And that was definitely a hard moment for me, and it might not have come across because I'm such a strong, independent woman that I had my breakdown in private, and I didn't want to make anyone. I didn't want to put anyone out and make them feel sorry for me when really walking away from him was it.

Was so hard to not even look back.

But yeah, I think that that's also one of the challenges with being an independent woman is that as a female, if you put up these walls and say I'm fine, I don't need help, I'm you know, I'm strong, people can sometimes see that as being cold, and they can sometimes see that as not needing help. And I think it's often forgotten that some of the most independent, seemingly independent people, they just struggle through things on their own. They still need help, but they might not ask.

Yeah, and you know, I think that as well.

Like I've learned a lot from doing reality TV, and I don't I have zero regrets. I mean, I have a wonderful partner out of it, and a life that I'm really really happy with that I never would have had had I continued on the trajectory I was on.

And I will now probably the first time I've actually said it, so why not say it.

On a national podcast. But I will put my hand up and say I am that person. I will never let friends or loved ones or public know that I'm having a hard time or I need help because I want to be the pillar of strength for them. Yeah, but God, sometimes I need it, which is why we're here now, because you reached out to me, and I thought, this is a stranger, but I'm going to just go and dump all my problems on her. But so like nothing about me and my heartache. You had the happy

I also have really had a heartburn right now and I need to pee, but I'm holding on because we've still got some time left for this podcast. I'm I'm really really grateful and incredibly lucky for the part where the point in my life where I'm at, And had you told me two years ago that I would be here, there's no way in hell I would have thought that that would be the case. I came out of two back to back really bad relationships. I would say one

I thank you.

I know, look, I think I think we just met at it at a really difficult time.

It was.

It was a two years, two years of my life where I was pushing a relationship up the hill and I was really being lied to, and and it was just there was a lot of manipulation going on in this relationship, but I wanted it to work, and I was so blindly accepting, and I had such deeply flawed boundaries on what was acceptable and not accepted in a relationship that I really just let him get away with

So you would say you were sort of just in this negative pattern, like did deep down did you know that these people were wrong and you kept doing it? Or what was your reasoning for going from this bad relationship to bad relationship.

I was in a cyclical die a dating cycle, and so I was dating the same type of person on repeat, and I was having the exact same outcome on repeat, but I was just projecting it onto each different relationship.

So when I met oh, sorry, hey, I was just going to say, do you think that that is a reflection looking back now of how you were feeling at the time. Did you feel like you had no confidence or that you weren't deserving or do you you know why you would do No? I think I was deserving.

I think these I mean, they were very exciting relationships at the start, and there was a lot of I'm sure that we were all familiar with the terms of like love bombing, and I was made to feel so special and so incredibly valued at the start of the relationship, but to a point where it was very unsustainable. And then I met Matt, And to be perfectly honest, Matt probably wasn't the type of guy. Had I met him in the real world and not in the Bachelor at Mansion,

But he would have been too kind away. I would have Yeah, I would have whooped his up. In the real world, I would have owned him. No, I think.

I think in the real world I just would have thought he was too nice and it wasn't a challenge there for me. And what I've come to realize through having, you know, two very happy years, is that relationships you don't want them to be a challenge. Oh my god, you don't need to work at it every day. And I know that sometimes there's this great romanticism about like you fight for the one you love, and you know, like like big relationships are worth the heart They're really

No And I've heard a lot of your conversations with Matt, and I've even read some of your thirty five texts to each other a day.

And they are actually really funny. Why are you going through my phone again?

God?

But my point is you guys laugh all the time, and I think that for me, that is what I'm looking for. And I think that's the key to any healthy relationship is don't take life too seriously and just.

Have somebody that you can laugh with.

Well, then you think about it like you're the start of your relationship. Shouldn't be the part that's the hardest, That shouldn't be what it shouldn't be overcoming all these hurdles at the beginning. You should really slot into each other's lives, make each other happy. You should be working towards common goals. Because, by God, when you are pregnant and fat and everything.

Hurts, things get harder.

But also, you know, when you have kids and you have money, issues and life really, you know, throws challenging things at you the longer that you are together in a relationship.

So if you're already on rocky territory just trying.

To be with no other together sources, trying to be together, that's not your relationship. And I think that sometimes when you're in it, it can be really well, it is really really difficult to walk away from something, especially someone who you love, but sometimes you need to to be able to open up time and space for something else to fall in place.

Yeah, and I do believe that what personally, I think that there's more than one person in this whole universe for us.

Oh yeah, thats crap. Sorry.

So I think a lot of people think if they leave now, they'll never meet anyone else again, and they'll especially women. Women have this this idea that being alone is a failure, being single at thirty is a failure. Oh okay, disagree. More So, I don't know if BRIT's gonna let me bringing this one up, and I'm bringing it up anyway.

Yesterday Brittany showed me a Instagram story that one of her friends had posted, and I know, I don't know this friend, so I'm sorry that I'm calling her out, but I know that it came with the best of intentions. Basically the insta story. Hold on, I'm going to point it out. I'm going to pull it up on my phone. Give me two seconds, so like a grandma tryna, we'll just set the scene here.

Laura and I were obviously this was only last night, and we were talking about today recording what we're going to talk about it.

Oh, here we go, give it to us. Okay.

So her girlfriend posted a photo of Brittany and herself and the caption is this, guys, honestly, this girl is still single. She's a catch, passionate, fun fit, tons of amazing energy and devoted.

How is she not taken? I don't get it.

I have decided to now manage the shortlist of her potentials.

DM me or cvs.

If you're keen to meet an amazing woman, I'll set it up at Brittany.

I am dying right now, rip me. I I am adad. I read this and I was like, you can't do that. I was dead for you.

Okay, I mean, look, I know that it comes with the best of intentions, but why is being single such a Why is it something that you should be not embarrassed. But I don't think that that's what is being pointed out. But why is it a floor?

Okay, So I think, obviously this is a very good friend of mine and I had been talking to her only a few days earlier, and.

I'm sorry, very good friends. I don't mean to to call out your bed. Maybe don't do that again.

I think, Look, it had really great intentions behind it, and because she genuinely wants me to be happy and meet somebody in course, and she doesn't. She says to me, I don't get it. I just don't get it. And she obviously I didn't know that that story was happy.

I mean, your closet crazy. But apart from that, no one knows that. Don't tell them no.

But it had good intentions and she just wanted to put that out there. But also I couldn't stop laughing crying. I was mortified, but I was happy. I didn't know how to feel about it, because I know it was a good thing. But then you put a different spin on it. When I was talking to you about it, I didn't have any negative energy towards that. I just thought it was a bit funny, but also a bit

Take on it was more so that I was like, why why do you need someone to take it into their hands? Like, I trust that you have the ability and you are a smart enough, vivacious enough, charismatic enough woman that when the time is right, you will meet the right person. Yeah, And that I think by making it seem like there's a flaw there or there's an urgency, that it makes someone who's single and who's looking for a relationship feel like there's something fundamentally wrong with them.

So it's not something you need to rush.

No, And this is something that I would like to change the way we look at things. I have had so many women message me or slide into my dams and just say how inspirational I am to them. That I'm single, and when I first heard that I'm inspiration, I was gobsback because I thought being single and thirty is not inspirational. Buying a house at twenty is inspirational. Traveling the world is inspirational. Tell me I'm inspirational for that. But that's what they mean, though.

I think when you do get people, Yeah, I think because you have accomplished so many different facets of life and being single hasn't stopped you from doing that. I think, you know, sometimes it is a bit daunting to do things on your own, and that was probably why I was a constant relationship hop because I was, you know, I found more purpose being able to travel with a partner or being able to have someone to validate my decisions.

Yeah.

I just want women to know that you don't need a man to complete you. You need them to be added and added bonus to your life. You need to be whole on your own first, and then when they come, they add to it. So I just hope anyone listening out there. If you're single and you're thinking that you're too old and your ovaries are drying up, please they are not. You just keep doing everything that you love and life will just fall into place.

So okay, then does that mean that you like? What sort of dating are you're doing?

You?

Are you on online dating? Are you open to meeting friends? Are we sourcing people through Instagram?

Now?

I don't know, like this podcast was set up for Brittany.

I don't know. Should I put an ad out there now? Please call two?

No?

That was actually gonna tell you my phone number. Please don't call me. No.

Look, God, there's so much to the dating world that we can discuss and I can't wait to delve into that later dates. But yeah, I'm definitely dating. You have to be in it to win it. But having said that, I think life after the Bachelor has it's probably made dating worse for me. To be honest, it's meant harder

I was listening to Tommy Little speak about this the other day, and he was saying that he was on Tinder because he really wants to meet someone and people weren't taking him seriously because he's Tommy Little on Tinder. Hi Tommy, Hi, So Tommy, if you're listening, Brittany is single.

No, but really I get that. I do think that that.

I mean, it would have an added complication to it when you do have a bit of a profile or but I guess as time kind of passes and as your Bachelor's season fades, which it does.

Well, that'll become easier and easier.

Yeah, and look, really I've met a few really great people, but also I've meant a few like excuse my language, but there are some assholes out there.

I think that that, especially on online dating, but it definitely breeds some interesting characters. And it also is a is an environment where people obviously, as we all know, are there for hookups as well, so you've got a

You met this person on a dating site.

It's not like you've just met them through friends and you're like, Hi, I want a boyfriend, but on a dating site. I think it's important when you go on your first date that you then set down some boundary. It's nice to meet you, this is what I'm looking for? What are you looking for? Because don't waste your time?

And I think also now, to be fair, Instagram is essentially a dating site.

Why what are you talking about.

The dm slidings because that's what it is.

Now.

What's the difference with swiping on Tinder and then messaging somebody. Actually people see people on Tinder and then they go and message them on their Instagram anyway, So I think now in this day and age, Instagram's as much of a dating site as Tinder or a hinge. There's one called Hinge now, which you know I did go on for all of four hours.

But I yeah, look, I mean I definitely dabbled in the world of online dating. Dabbled is probably an understatement. I was well into online dating for quite a while before before meeting Matt, but I didn't look. I mean, I had some long term relationships out of it, but they were both my most difficult and my most flawed relationships. So I don't know whether I really met anyone that was even potential for dating.

True. Am I dating my sister Sherry.

We were on this round the world trip together and she actually met her now partner, which I think they'll probably get engaged this year, but Sherry blockiers.

But they met on Tinder in Scotland, So I just think that's a great story and he's an amazing person.

They have an amazing relationship, and I know actually a lot of people that have had success. Absolutely. I we said that I have some horror stories that I could share with you guys.

Well, I can't wait to get into the horror stories later on, unless you want to share one of them with us.

Now, Oh my God, No, that's a Tipic continued, Yeah, let's not cover off everything on the first episode. No, no, no, no.

So I think before we wrap this up, I want to know about you because this could be the last time we speak to you when you have a baby inside of you and not in the real world.

Yeah, look, this will be the last time. I'm hoping that you had a contractions over there right now. Actually, last night last night was really hard. So I've had a really great pregnancy so far. I've really I've actually really enjoyed it. I feel like one of those obnoxious pregnant women who are like.

Pregnancy is great and anyone, I.

Don't know, it's Instagram filter's babe. But last night I couldn't sleep and I was having some pretty hectic practice contractions last night. So I was I was almost going to message you this morning and say we might need to reschedule and maybe giving birth.

I mean, I was waiting for that call to But yeah.

Look, life is going to change incredibly in a couple of weeks.

And how instead of it changing there, how has it changed from when you do just finished as a couple. How is being pregnant changed your relationship is it something you have found has put more pressures on or has it made it?

Has it better and strengthened your relationship? Yeah, look, reationship has definitely changed. Obviously, we got engaged whilst we've been I've been pregnant, which we congratulate.

A little bit, thank you, Yay.

It's a little bit back to front, but we we have always kind of danced to the beat of our own drum mat night and and you know, us getting pregnant at the start, it wasn't something that was it was planned, but we I don't know if if people have followed our journey at all prior to this, but we we I was pregnant. We had a miscarriage that was definitely a surprise. The miscarriage wasn't like we got to the ten week mark. We were both really in and really stoked and excited, and then we found out

And we went from being.

Like, oh, we'll have kids in two years to being like, I'll screw it, let's see what happens. And within two months, not even a month, I was pregnant again. So I was really lucky that I got pregnant very quickly a second time.

Definitely.

Yeah, And the pregnancy has been really great. It's changed our relationship massively. It has made us really really close, and it's made us really connected on what we want and where we're heading. So it's, you know, I think we've moved from that like, oh, we're boyfriend and girlfriend to very much we're starting a family. We're building something together.

Which is forever. Yeah, we want to buy a home.

We're investing in things that are that are ours, And I think that you know, anyone who's gone through that shift in their relationship, it's it's really brings you together and it really is sort of solidifies that you're in it for the long haul, which is a beautiful feeling. And you know, I do think that having a child together is more of a commitment than getting married, that's for sure.

Yeah.

But you know, the funny thing is the hardest part so far about this pregnancy has been so I know that everyone sort of says, you know, people always have their opinions, but I'm really happy with people giving me their opinions because I don't I've never been a mom before.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm quite happy to take advice, but the one advice that's really been upsetting me lately has been based around how much work I'm still doing at the moment and my going back to work after having the baby.

Because you do well, you.

Run your own business, very successful business, but you don't really have that option or luxury I should say to take six months or a year off.

No, well, that's just it.

So, I mean, I run my own business with my sister, and it's impossible. When you run your own business and you are the sole person that's responsible for quite a big department of it, things.

Don't just stop. You know. I can't just give myself six months maternity leave.

And that seems to be the thing that's upset a lot of other young like so like early mums.

So my friends.

I've got some friends who have recently had kids, and when i tell them that I'm not really taking maternity leave and that I'll still be working from the laptop from home and I'll try to juggle it as best I can, they're almost bewildered. But to a point where they're almost offended that I'm not taking time off to spend more of it one on one with my child.

As if you're not like, I'm not aversion of yeah a mother, and yeah, that's that's tough.

Yeah, it feels very judgmental, and that's been the biggest thing that I've had to overcome. But me, Matt and I are really lucky in that Matt has a very fluid job as well, and so he is at home and he's very very hands on. He doesn't have a nine to five job to go back to, so he keeps saying he's going to be a stay at home.

Dad, but you know, should probably be great.

Essentially, we're going at this fifty to fifty and so I feel incredibly blessed. I have his support and I do have that flexibility to go back to work because work gives me so much purpose and it's really important to me. It's it's a huge part of my identity. And as much as I'm looking forward to being a mom and I want to be a mom, and I still will be your mom, I will be and I'll be a great mom. I'll be the best mum, this mom, this mom, oh the best mom. This kid's gonna have baby.

Yeah.

But I so that's been my most challenging thing so far is really dealing with other people's expectations on what my maternity.

Leave should look like and their criticism of that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think women these days, we are having children later, and we are becoming more independent, and we are taking our children to work, and it's nice to change that stigma and not have it a negative thought that, oh, you have to go for six months and stay at home in your house and never see the light of day again.

Yeah.

I actually went to this really interesting talk recently, the CEO of Adore Beauty.

I cannot remember her name off top of my.

Head, but she spoke about being a CEO and being a mum, and she talked about how she juggles it by not but she only does jobs that add value to her relationships or to her business. So for her, she was like, you know, cleaning isn't something that adds value to her time with her children, so she has

Not a good delegator, I'm getting better at delegating, but I can delegate the bits of my life that don't add value to my relationship with Matt, or my relationship with my children, or my relationship with my job.

So for me, I think that that's the best part of it is that if I can get other people to do the add hot bits and pieces that take up a lot of.

Time, then essentially I'm still going to be a good mum.

I'm still going to be very present and be able to be there for the sport, be there for the nappy changes, be there for the cuddles. But I don't have to be there necessarily for the cleaning or the cooking or the other things that you know, become part of.

Day to day life.

Absolutely, and I think that is not to give you a big head or to your horn, but that's pretty inspiration it No, it's inspirational what you're doing. You're working hard, you're literally giving birth any day you're still working out. You know you're going to go back and run your business, and you have enough respect for your partner Matt to be a stay.

At home dad.

And I think a lot of women worry about that, that, oh, maybe the man is not going to really know what to do.

It hard and that will be amazing. He won't be a stay at home dad, and that he still has it. He has a lot of lot to do, but that he will be very hands on and Matt's always wanted to be a dad and so he will thrive in that environment. He's an amazing uncle. And and yeah he I mean he's gotten more into the nesting than I have. He's cute, done the whole house. I mean, I did see the undies. He bought you the old bridge at Jones.

I think he likes him too. I reckon he does as well. Mad. If you're listening, you need to get a life.

No look, and I I feel I feel like we've covered a lot today and today just so everyone knows, this will be a podcast about all things love, relationships, life, last just a general reality TV and obviously reality TV.

Because Laura is the other half of this podcast. So well, I was never going to slip that by her.

But we did sort of talk a lot today about our bachelor experience and our dating history, because we do want to set that up for everybody. But this will not be a podcast about us and about just the Bachelor. So I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. We've got some really good topics we're going to be talking about, and obviously Laura will be back with a baby, so

It's still in my hair right now. Makes the great hairspray.

We said we were going to finish all of these episodes with our suck and sweet for the week, which is basically our highs and our lows. So come at me, babe, what was your highs and your lows for this week? Okay, So I think it's important we always start with a suck first. You know, my suck this week was probably to be honest, and this is, you know, not a really big thing, but I have had no time this week. I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut.

Off.

I just got back from Byron Bay really late last night.

Oh it sounds so difficult. It was work. It was working Byron. It's such a suck.

I told you this is going to sound bad, but I just haven't even had time to scratch myself. And that's not a bad thing, but it's the worst thing that's happened to me this week. And my sweet was probably I just signed on with Beautiful Minds, which is the only government funded organization.

Oh yeah, I love this. Tell me about this, Britay. Yeah.

Well, they're the only government funded organization that will go around and speak to girls young boys as well. I'll only be speaking to the girls age from you know, eleven up to seventeen, and we go to schools, we do workshops and we speak to them about just growing up in today's society and body confidence and social media, bullying, loving yourself. There'll be things about sexting, suicide, depression, everything.

I love that you're doing this, and I love that this is a conversation you're bringing into schools. But you you haven't quite started this yet or it's very new.

I've just spoken, had my meetings with them, and I'm just signing on. So it's amazing.

You've been an ambassador for anti bullying and I'm excited.

Yeah, I think it's great. But what about you? What's what's your second sweet for the week.

Look, I'm pretty immobile at the moment, like, oh my fucking sweet, Um, what sucked this week?

Okay?

Well, I mean you just got your coffee or to mix up three times?

Oh my god, I'm going to complain so hard about the cafe downstairs.

No I'm not. I'm not going to name and shame. Could you imagine?

But they did take twenty five minutes to bring me my coffee, which I ordered to take away, which is a long time to wait for takeaway, and then it came out as the wrong coffee, and then I had to wait another fifteen minutes for the right coffee.

That's a long time to wait for it.

But then they brought it back in a mug. I was supposed to be taway. It was the whole thing, so that I don't even think that was my suck. That was just a very unfortunately, very drawn out part of my morning. I think my suck for this week has been.

Like I'm I guess, the uncertainty around the pregnancy and like the bur Yeah, a little bit of that, a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of fear. I think that comes into the whole headspace of pushing out a small human out of a big human, out of a small.

Hole and just trying to get my head around and says that's well, apparently I'm not the first person to do it. I'm the first time I'm doing it, so it's a big deal for me.

You're aloe, So yeah, I think that that that I have had a little bit of, Uh, I wouldn't say it. It's not anxiety, but just a bit of concern. It's been keeping me up a bit at night. Apprehension, Yeah, and I think it's also the excitement of it as well. My suite for this week Matt is home. He had been traveling for quite a while. He's been recording and

On you have zero idea what you're having, boy or girl, but let's just call it.

What do you think is going to be? All right? Because this is it, you'll have a baby any day? Drum roll.

I feel like we need to take debts on this. Okay, I'm going to pick before you. Okay, go, I'm going to say.

Boy.

I'm just going to go a boy. Although you're very like quite small in compact, so.

I also think I'm having a boy.

So we can just like Patti Shop's back if we're right, and if we're wrong's.

Just stop podcasting at the end. Yeah, don't looking to anything we say.

Okay, well, guys, thank you so much for tuning in to our very very first episode. I'm sure we will figure out what the hell we're doing as we continue down the path.

Oh I hope so, but to be on, my cheeks are hurting. I've had a smile on my face the whole time, and.

I think you have good You've been looking at me, well, I am looking at.

You exactly but yeah, thanks for tuning in.

We can't wait to keep talking to you over the coming weeks, months, and potentially years.

Yeah, we're going to be dropping a podcast every fortnight is what our aim is at the start, so.

Especially while you get your head around baby life.

Yeah, so tune in and we look forward to talking to you again real soon.

Have a great week. Okay, thanks bye,