The new season of The Bachelorette hasn't started yet – but already, its star has tasted the worst of fame.
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Georgia Love has been stalked by paparazzi. Tabloids have dredged up unflattering photos. Ex-boyfriends are slinging mud. And a newspaper columnist accused her of chasing "celebrity status" at the cost of her "respectable" TV newsreading job. "Here's hoping Love makes better choices romantically ... than she has made thus far with her career," the writer scolded.
Love, 27, does not feign indifference. As I read out these comments, her face falls. "They're very hurtful," she says softly.
"I've taken a massive risk. To suggest I'm putting myself in this vulnerable position for short-term fame is quite offensive. Yes, it's a public forum – but I'm doing this for personal reasons."
After several years in the tough world of TV journalism, she's under no illusions. Love knows what others will presume: that she craves a national profile; something her WIN News anchor role in Hobart failed to give her. So with stars (and sponsorship dollars) in her eyes, she applied for Channel Ten's hit dating show. But if she thinks she can waltz back into journalism after The Bachelorette, people snigger, she's in for a shock.
Except this script falls apart when you discover Love didn't apply for the show; producers approached her. Nor was there any association between Ten and WIN at that time. (The two networks have since partnered.) She was stunned by the request – and carefully considered its implications. "I love news and it's what I know – but I have my head on my shoulders. I know that after this experience, I probably won't be seen in the same light.
"News reporters are there to be a face, to tell a story. We don't need to know about their personal life. I acknowledge that might not be something I go back to, for that reason."
It's easy to see why producers wooed Love (that surname is used to full advantage in the promos), who grew up in bayside Melbourne with her sister Katie and their parents. The "special skills" section of her resume includes singing, dancing and a stint as a professional trapeze artist. She has an easy laugh, and gives you her undivided attention.
Since 15, she has pursued journalism as her career, sparked by a compulsion to "get to the bottom of things". But this gives rise to another myth: that her TV experience helped on The Bachelorette. (This includes Prime Seven in Traralgon, a producing stint with A Current Affair, and multiple roles with WIN in Tasmania, most recently as its Hobart weeknight newsreader.)
In fact, it was a hindrance.
"As a reporter, I was trained to switch off all emotion in front of a camera. And being a newsreader, you look down the barrel ... but on a date, I had to forget the camera was there. I had to strip away everything I'd learnt."
She acknowledges that courting 16 men under the glare of a national audience is strange. But having being left "dumped and heartbroken" almost two years ago – then throwing herself into work – she figured now was a good time to switch focus.
"I love my job but there was a huge part of me that wasn't fulfilled, and that was ... having someone to come home to.
"It's scary how quickly everything moves [on the show], but it also cuts out all the crap. On a normal third date, you wouldn't be saying, 'Would you move interstate for me and do you want kids?' But so many people want to ask those questions!"
Love hasn't signed up to any old reality program, though. Not only does the franchise still rate strongly for Ten, it dominates social media and generates more coverage than rival programs. It's no surprise, therefore, gossip websites have gleefully published the salacious claims of ex-partners.
"I'm smart enough to know people will try to take you down; trolls and people who want to make a positive experience negative. But what's hurtful is when people who've been a big part of my life – who I've really cared about – are saying nasty and untrue things."
Given filming has wrapped, Love is forbidden from being seen with her beau until the finale airs. (This is no small matter: last year, Ten got a Supreme Court injunction forcing The Daily Mail to remove its spoiler pictures of former bachelorette Sam Frost with winner Sasha Mielczarek.)
One consolation for Love and her partner is knowing their courtship has been captured on film: "To watch that blossom; that's a beautiful thing.
"I'd like to have a glass of wine with Sam Frost. She's the only person in Australia who knows what I've been through. And maybe she could help me get my head around what on earth might come next."
WHAT: The Bachelorette Australia
WHEN: Wednesdays and Thursdays, Ten, 7.30pm
