EXCLUSIVE: Georgia Love on love, loss and the controversy that 'changed' her.

Georgia Love has been a fixture on Aussie TV screens for almost a decade.

Introduced to viewers on The Bachelorette in 2016, reality TV fans eagerly watched her love story with Lee Elliott blossom before their eyes.

Then, after almost a decade together, Georgia and Lee announced they had split in February.

And now, the accomplished journalist, reality TV star and host of Everyone Has An Ex has sat down with Kate Langbroek for an episode of No Filter.

First, listen to Georgia Love on Mamamia's No Filter podcast. Post continues below.

Georgia addressed where she stands with Lee, who she got engaged to in 2019 and married in 2021.

"We've agreed to separate, but there's certainly no paperwork or anything done. I feel very weird calling him my ex-husband," she said.

"Lee and I were together for nine years and married for four, so he's not just an ex… we were very much ingrained in each other's lives."

The ups and downs of their lives over the past almost decade took a toll on their relationship.

"Some of those things we have grown together through, and other parts we've sadly grown apart, probably due to those changes in who we are as people because of the situations," she said.

"Unfortunately, the relationship has ended in terms of being each other's romantic partner, but we have weathered a lot together and have a deep, deep, deep love and respect for each other."

Georgia feels a lot of gratitude for the time she spent with Lee, which included buying a home together in 2021 and travelling the world.

"We've shared such a beautiful life together. I feel so so so lucky and grateful for that. We've gone through a lot in our nine years… the loss of my mum started our relationship. That was the day after our The Bachelorette finale. My mum passed away, so we've gone through so much together."

The grief of losing her mother Belinda, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2016, is a feeling that has slight parallels with her separation from Lee.

"Grief can come in many forms: deep down, the feeling of loss is the same, but takes different shapes. I think the loss of mum is very different, because that's something that cannot be changed and will not be changed," she said.

"The loss of my partnership with Lee, that exact hole won't be filled, because every relationship is different. But I don't look ahead to the rest of my life and think that that will be a hole forever — like I do with the loss of Mum."

Watch Georgia Love talk about the moment she realised her mum wouldn't get better. Post continues after video.

But there's another layer of loss that comes with her split from Lee. "One thing I really have grappled with, and that's been very difficult for me, is the fact that Lee met Mum," Georgia said.

"She was very, very sick when he did, but she knew him. She died knowing I was with him… I feel sad that she thought my life was going one way, and that path has changed."

Months leading up to the breakup announcement, public speculation intensified over rumours that Georgia and Lee had parted ways.

"At the end of last year, there was a lot of speculation around whether we had split: we were being followed to see if we were seen together, or whether we were wearing our wedding rings," she recalled.

"I understand that's part of being in the public eye, especially because we met in a public way. I don't begrudge that, but it was very, very hard while I was trying to come to terms with what was happening. Just because Lee and I have made this decision together, it doesn't mean it makes me happy, it doesn't. I'm really, really sad about it."

The Bachelorette winners ultimately decided to share the news with their Instagram followers.

"A big part of what has been difficult about making the public announcement that we have decided to separate was because I don't want to feel like I've let anyone down," she said.

Georgia Love has been a fixture on Aussie TV for almost a decade. Image: Supplied.

The two shared a joint statement to their Instagram Stories, but not all the responses have been full of support.

"Some people have been nasty… no one ever comes up to your face and says nasty things, it's only ever online," she said.

Georgia admits that she had read some snarky comments, such as people saying "Oh, you met on reality TV. Surprise, surprise, it didn't work!"

To this kind of rhetoric, Georgia has one thing to say: "We met on a reality TV show and we fell in love, we got married, and we've spent the most incredible years together. That's not a failure of the relationship. It's not another The Bachelor couple who failed. I don't see it as a failure at all."

After the split, Georgia went to New York to start the healing process, a trip she had already booked in a divine act of timing. "It was going to be my first Christmas and New Year period without him," she said.

"The timing just ended up being even more perfect than I realised… it was amazing taking myself out of that bubble. When you're going through something, no matter what it is, it can feel like it is everything. It's taking over your life. It's taking over your world. And it's very easy to think that other people are all looking at you, thinking that thing too."

She spent two and a half weeks with a friend going to Broadway shows and exploring the stunning city in the wintertime. "Even spending days just walking by myself, deciding to go to a show by myself, seeing different things and realising I can go through life on my own," she reflected.

One thing that's helped Georgia as she's navigated the split has been having her job in journalism as a distraction. She is currently a radio newsreader at ARN.

"I've only ever wanted to do journalism since I was 13, and I love it so much. I've loved every single day of my work in that industry," she said.

"Going through this separation is such a difficult time, I love my work so much. I love my job so much. I've got the most beautiful colleagues. I know where I'm to be every day. I know that I'm needed. I know that I'm valued.

"I've had periods where I haven't had work as a salvation, and that has been horrible."

Georgia Love says she has wanted to be a journalist since she was 13. Image: Supplied.

Georgia was taken off-air by Channel 7 in 2021 after she posted an Instagram Story that was widely criticised as racially insensitive.

"I hate the term 'cancelled', but that's the term that people used a few years ago when I lost my job after that," she said.

"I posted something on Instagram that I didn't realise on posting would or could be taken as offensive. I was immediately called out on that and told that it was, and I was mortified. I immediately took it down and apologised, but I had upset and offended a lot of people."

The backlash was immediate and unrelenting, as an old post with a similar sentiment was dug up from Georgia's Instagram. The massive response was something that she credits to being a sign of the times.

"I think there were probably a lot of factors. It was towards the end of COVID, and it was that time when both Melbourne and Sydney were in their longest lockdowns," she said.

"Everything else was amplified because that's what was happening. I do think that was part of the reason it became as big as it did. That doesn't take away from the fact that I said something that offended people. It's certainly no excuse for that."

Georgia Love is currently a radio newsreader at ARN. Image: Supplied.

That said, Georgia still considers some of the online discourse about her to be overly cruel.

"There were a number of people who wrote public opinion pieces and open letters and used me as an example of the worst type of racism and the worst of the worst that there is," she said.

Georgia believes that a lot of it comes down to her public perception. "I seem to be easy to dislike. I guess I don't think I'm unlikable, but maybe it's almost the opposite. I think I've been nice, kind, and I've kept my head down and just done my work and enjoyed my life. And maybe that's the reason," she said.

"That period really damaged me and has changed me as a person — not my nature or my core — but the way I react to things, or where my mind jumps to.

"Still to this day, when my boss calls me, my heart sinks…. it made me probably go inwards a lot more."

Feature image: Supplied.