For the second time in two days a man named Michael has quit The Bachelorette, frustrated by the lack of effort Lesina Nakhid-Schuster put in to getting to know him.
We sat glued to our screens last night as 35-year-old Mike Bullot cut to the crux of his issue with bachelorette Lesina, asking “You asked me today, like am I ready for a relationship, but are you?”
Tonight, after reflecting on what Lesina had to say for herself, or rather the lack of what she had to say, the Olympic sailor decided their relationship was doomed and made the call to abandon ship.
“We’ve spent enough time together now and I feel like I’ve done everything I can and without her reciprocating that there’s really no point,” Mike said.
“On paper this seems ridiculous to walk away from but I’m going to go back, say goodbye to the boys at the house and fly back to New Zealand.”
Mike, who was previously married to celebrity chef Chelsea Winter, doubled down on his suspicion that Lesina hadn’t been opening up enough to give the experience her all.
“I know why I’m here and I don’t know if she does know, and I don’t know if she’s either being completely honest with us or maybe not completely honest with herself, but either one doesn’t feel comfortable,” he explained.
Mike’s surprise departure leaves only two men in the running for Lesina’s affections, the self-styled ‘Alpha Male of Group’ Aaron McNabb and understated French travel agent Logan Carr.
Watch: What pushed Mike Bullot to breaking point on The Bachelorette, Article continues below:
Mike’s frustration with Lesina was clear to see as he urged her to take his departure as a wake-up call.
“She gave nothing away. But I hope from this she will understand that to get everything she wants out of this she’s probably got to figure a few things out pretty quickly I think,” he advised.
Richie Boyens, who’s had no trouble forming a deep connection with bachelorette Lily McManus, more specifically with her tongue, managed to come up for air for long enough to weigh in on the issue himself.
“What does that say eh? For the girl that you guys are supposedly trying to get to know, and other people find it so hard to get to know her?” he warned Aaron and Logan.
“Lesina just sort of seems like she turns up and reads off her scripted card sometimes.”
While Lesina couldn’t disagree that Mike was probably making the right decision, she wouldn’t go as far as accepting any culpability for their predicament.
“He’s kind of like the perfect person on paper for me, but for some reason he doesn’t make me feel the way I should feel,” she confided to Lily.
“I kind of need someone to be invested or ‘I like you, for me to feel like ‘OK I can start feeling like I’m safe enough to be vulnerable’ and I just don’t feel like that with Mike.”
This isn’t the first time the issue of Lesina’s apprehensiveness has come up this season.
Earlier, during a conversation with Liam, the 32-year-old doctor admitted that at the start of her Bachelorette journey she felt pressure to come across as perfect, to the detriment of her connections with the men.
“Coming into this whole thing I thought the image of what a bachelorette should be is someone who’s like the perfect girl,” Lesina confessed.
“I’m not perfect and it’s good to be able to just like let that out. No-one had that expectation of me I realised. I had that expectation of myself.”
That’s the spirit Mike, plenty more fish in the sea!
While Lesina is very careful with what she says, to the point of appearing cold, Lily is never at a loss for words and was able to shed more light on the situation as she saw it.
“She’s only kind of started to realise through this experience that, you know, what she wants deep down is so much more important than what she thinks she wants for herself, and I think Mike was what she thinks she wants for herself but deep down I don’t think he was,” Lily explained.
While it was too little too late for him, Mike hoped Lesina could get it together in time to form a genuine relationship with one of the remaining men.
“I really mean it when I say I hope you figure out what you are looking for and I really hope you find it,” he said.
“I’m really interested to see how this all plays out.”
You’re not the only one Mike.
The Bachelorette New Zealand airs Monday – Tuesday at 7:30pm and Sunday 7pm on TVNZ 2
.jpg)
