The Bachelor Australia runner-up Abbie Chatfield always thought she was a good judge of character. She could tell a genuine sweetheart from a sneaky cheat and was usually the one to “spot them out” for her friends.
But the star shockingly deiscovered her radar was way off when she hosted new reality series FBoy Island Australia. She confesses she was “completely fooled” by the 24 hunky male contestants.
“Like an FBI agent, I’d put on the wall in my trailer who I thought was a player and who was a nice guy,” says Abbie, 29. She shot to fame on the 2019 season of The Bachelor and has since gone on to join the guessing panel of The Masked Singer Australia.
“But when the producers saw it, they laughed, implying I had it all wrong. There was one guy in particular where I couldn’t fathom that he was a f**k boy – he seemed so nice!”
Sophie Blackley
Originally from Invercargill, DJ and dancer Sophie Blackley, 27, moved to Oz eight years ago. She is now one of the single women charged with hunting down a loyal boyfriend in order to win $100,000 cash on FBoy Island Australia.
Having not been on a date in three years, Sophie says she was “shocked” with some of the outcomes on the show. However, she concludes, “Just because you’re an F-boy doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy. Both the F-boys and nice guys provided me with so much fun. I have a soft spot for a lot of them. I do believe an F-boy can reform for the right lady.”
Ziara Rae
Fellow single lady Ziara Rae, 22, who has African-American heritage and works as a model, says the show was an opportunity for her to look inward and discover why she was “attracting bad boys”.
She explains, “It was like I had ‘Come here, F-boys’ tattooed on my forehead. I learned a lot about myself in this process and why I think that kind of relationship is OK.”
Molly O’Halloran
Meanwhile, Molly O’Halloran, a 27-year-old occupational therapist from a strict Catholic family, came on to the show just months after leaving her fiancé. She’d walked in on him cheating on her at his work, as she reveals in episode one of the series.
When asked what her former groom-to-be thought about her going on FBoy Island, Molly admits he “wasn’t super-pleased”. She adds wryly, “At the end of the day, we’re both moving on – on to bigger and better things.”
Describing herself as a “21st-century woman”, Molly says that filming the reality show was “chaotic”. However, it was also plenty of fun and she’d “do it again in a heartbeat”.
All three women agree they forged a sisterhood on FBoy Island and “had each other’s backs” on the show. None of them made a single decision without consulting the other two women.
“The girls are so supportive – we’re all best friends,” Ziara says. “If I needed a big-sister moment or anything like that, they were always there.”
The full first season of FBoy Island Australia drops Monday on Hayu.
The Kiwi stars still together
FBoy Island NZ was hosted by former What Now star Shavaughn Ruakere and filmed in the Cook Islands. It was rocked by controversy before it even started airing in late 2022. Contestant Wayde Moore was edited out of the show at the last minute after producers learnt he’d been charged with suffocating a drunk woman. Though he was found not guilty, the judge described his behaviour as “deeply inappropriate and disrespectful”.
Two years on, tradie Kiera McLeod reveals she and her man, Auckland actor Will Inwood-Reardon, are “loving living the quiet life” in her hometown of Wānaka. Hinting at an engagement, she tells us, “We’re super-excited to share the next milestone that seals the deal of our relationship shortly. We can’t say what it is just yet as only those closest to us know.”
Also still together, her co-stars Coco Song and Zac Prince will soon move in together in Sydney. Coco admits, “Zac and I have been off and on a bit throughout our relationship. But, we were ultimately always drawn back to each other. It took time, patience and a lot of communicating, but we’ve been in an amazingly solid place for a while. We’re both in it for the long run. We’d love to get married before looking at having kids.”
Keep up to date with the show on their official Instagram page.
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