The Bachelor Australia’s recently eliminated contestant Steph Harper has come out in defence of Bella Varelis in her ‘fight’ with former show ‘best friend’, Irena Srbinovska.
Steph, who left the show in episode 11 alongside Maddy Carver, spoke up in an interview following her exit, revealing that “there’s a lot of stuff that happened that wasn’t shown at all”.
“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.
