Former Bachelorette Lily McManus wears her heart on her sleeve. The go-getting 21-year-old wasn’t afraid to be herself on the second season of The Bachelor, capturing Zac Franich’s heart almost to the end.
She lost out to love-rival Viarni Bright in the final episode, but it didn’t put her off reality tv dating and she took another chance at love, signing up for the first season of Bachelor Winter Games along with fellow Kiwi contestants Jordan Mauger and Ally Thompson.
It’s there that she thought she’d found “the one” in fellow Australian Courtney Dober. They embarked on a passionate and intense 8 month relationship, but Lily has announced in a lengthy social media post today that it has come to a mutual end.
“Court is a bloody good man, every fibre of his being. He is possibly the most high functioning man I have ever met for someone who has a diet of 98% street van tacos. He’s good with his hands, he gets worried if I’m cold, puts together a solid peppermint tea, average joke teller, lives pretty well with a full force caffeine addiction, doesn’t mind being the little spoon, froths a peanut M&M, will talk s^^t about other people’s houses with me.
“It makes my eyes leak a little bit but myself and Court have decided to split on mutual terms. I love Court with every ounce of my being, that long limbed f^^k will be a part of my life for a very long time. You guys watched us fall in love and it was honestly just as magical as it looked in real life. I never thought I’d be the type of woman to fall in love on TV but now I am that b^^ch.
“I am a believer. I’m so glad I jumped in an RV with you after making it out of the love cult alive, I wouldn’t change a thing Court. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I’m so confident that you’ll find every single thing in life that makes you happy, if you can’t do it then there’s absolutely no hope for the rest of us. Maybe in another life we’ll eat tacos, play tonsil hockey, swim in the ocean and park RV’s in post office car parks. I can already feel the “love is dead” comments brewing but I can promise you guys it is 100% alive and well.”
Courtney followed up with a post of his own.
“Lily and I have chosen not to end our relationship but to continue it as mates. We’re best friends and its become clear to both of us that the emotional side of our relationship just doesn’t allow us to be the best versions of ourselves. Perhaps in a world where there are no distractions, no life obstacles, nothing else mattered and looking into the future wasn’t even a thought, things might be different… but that’s not reality and we’ve decided that this is for the best.
“Now, to this deleted scene from the adventure where we met. This video (which you can watch in the player above) captures us. My crappy humor, our vulnerability, your witty replies, our many similarities including drinking beers from shoes but most of all the moment we both took a chance with each other.
“In my eyes this was the moment our relationship began, 8 months, 2 weeks and 2 days ago. Man time flies… I love ya kid. At 21 I’ve never met someone who’s lived so many lives, achieved so much and who’s still so ambitious and ready take over the world.”
Courtney is 10 years older than Lily and quite tellingly, he also made a comment about how he was “just trying to keep up.” It’s a similar sentiment to one Zac shared on The Bachelor, worrying that he would be holding Lily back in life.
Back in April, Lily gave an interview to Woman’s Day, saying that when she met Courtney she thought it was too good to be true.
“I was like, ‘This is so good! Where’s the catch?’
“From personal experience, something always goes wrong, so I kept wondering, ‘Why is it so perfect?’ I didn’t believe I could find the perfect story here. Everyone else was having drama and issues, and I was so happy, I felt out of place!
“Everything happens for a reason. I didn’t even want to go on the original Bachelor, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here with Courtney. It’s a pretty wild story. We’ll see where it goes next. I’m excited!”
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