"I do think we're seeing a lot of reactions about how Bella acted on the show — but there's a lot of stuff that happened that wasn't shown at all," she told Now To Love.
"I've had contact with the girls off the record and I'm aware a lot of stuff was said about Bella that wasn't very nice, so I understand where she's coming from. I adore Bella. I have so much love for her."
When asked about her thoughts on how Bella was portrayed in episode 11 of The Bachelor, where Bella told Locky of her thoughts about Irena, Steph said she thought Bella was "justified" in calling out Irena.
"There's a lot of stuff that you don't see between Bella and Irena — so much happened," Steph said.
"I do think Bella was justified [in calling out Irena]. She had a reaction to something, and yes, she might have gone a bit OTT, but in the mansion, who doesn't? I know I had my moments there."
Incidentally, Steph is not the first person to speak out about Bella and Irena's 'fight' backstory. Final four contestant Izzy also weighed in on the contestants' feud in a since deleted comment on Instagram.
First picked up by The Wash, Izzy reportedly responded to a viewer who was speculating that Bella's “insecurities are ruining her chances with Locky Gilbert,”, to which she slyly responded:
“Or maybe you’re just not seeing the full story."
Well, well, well.
Both contestants' defence of Bella follow rumours that Irena and Bella's huge fight was not actually over Locky, but a body-shaming incident.
