Just two months after the dramatic Bachelor Australia finale aired, Matt Agnew and Chelsie McLeod have announced their break up.
“These past six months since filming have been a very unique experience,” Matt wrote in an Instagram post.
“Chels and I have made some beautiful memories together that I’ll always cherish, and I wish her nothing but the absolute best.
“However, it’s with a heavy heart that I write this. For Chels and me, our relationship hasn’t translated from filming to the real, every day world as we had hoped.
“Chels is a very special woman and I want her to find the happiness she deserves.
“For those who may wonder if there’s someone else for me right now, there absolutely is not. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just life.”
Chelsie, too, shared her own announcement on Instagram.
“Thank you so much to everyone for your support and kind words over what was an incredibly exciting, rewarding, challenging, and emotional journey,” she wrote.
“Your words have not gone unnoticed. Matt showed me what it was like to be respected in a relationship and I am so thankful for that. However, it saddens me to say that we are no longer together.
“I wish him nothing but the best. I’m sorry to those that were invested in our relationship. Please remember to be kind online as you don’t know what is going on behind the screen. All my love.”
Watch: Chelsie wins Matt’s heart in the Bachelor finale. Article continues below.
It’s a far cry from the Bachelor finale which aired in Australia in September, when 32-year-old astrophysicist Matt declared his love for Chelsie.
“I went in to this experience very optimistic and this is exactly where I wanted to end up. I wanted a love that is out of this world and I’m over the moon that I’ve found it,” Matt confessed, after telling runner-up Abbie Chatfield that his heart belonged to someone else.
“I’ve never believed in such a thing as the perfect woman until I met you,” Matt told her. “You encapsulate everything I’m looking for. My biggest fear is opening up to that special someone and having my heart broken into a thousand pieces.
“My heart is fluttering and even though it could get broken in to a thousand pieces it’s time to take the plunge and tell you how I feel. Chelsie, I love you.”
“I love how you giggle when you’re nervous,” Matt continued to tell a teary Chelsie, who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
“I love that you go full nerd as soon as there’s some maths involved, and above all I love how to make me feel. You make me want to believe in fairytales because when I’m with you I feel like I’m in one.”
Matt and Chelsie had chemistry from the get-go, but sadly it wasn’t enough to carry their relationship successfully into the real world.
Speaking to TV WEEK after the finale aired, the happy coupled revealed they were “excited” to move forward from the show together, and take their relationship out into the real world – away from the bubble of TV.
“I think doing normal things is great and something we’re both looking forward to,” Matt says. “But what we’re most excited about is adventures.
“It’s something we’ve talked about a lot and that can be something extravagant like going travelling to an exotic location that we haven’t been before and exploring or it could be going for a hike on a Saturday morning…”
But sadly, for them, bringing that relationship into the real world ultimately didn’t work out. In the wake of the split, Chelsie has since made a request via her Instagram story, writing “Hey guys, don’t send me any articles if that’s ok. It won’t help.”
