PLEASE DON’T HATE ME, but after last night’s episode of The Bachelorette, I am 100 per cent team Courtney.
I can hear your gasps of frustration. But hear me out.
Yes, his expressions of how he felt towards Georgia were pretty much as clear as mud. Yes, he gave up valuable time with Georgia throughout the whole show, and then turned around and said he hadn't had enough of it to fall in love with her.
Yes, he sulked like Baby George did when he realised he might have to release his hold on Uncle Matty J to let him move to Melbourne to be happy and in love with Georgia.
But... in his final moments, Courtney was honest. He was real. And for that, I want to praise him.
Anyone who's even been in a serious relationship will tell you that sometimes, things get tough. You have to have difficult conversations that aren't always fun or pretty and you have to share feelings that sometimes you'd rather not have to say out loud.
Sometimes those difficult conversations come even before you've taken that leap of faith and are still deciding whether you want to. Not because you don't like the person, but instead because falling in love isn't always sunshine and rainbows: it's real and sometimes it's super f*cking hard.
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Combine that truth with being surrounded by cameras and lights 24/7 while trying to develop real feelings and you've got a disaster.
I'm not denying that Courtney said things that Georgia might not have wanted to hear. But wasn't it better for him to say them then and there (albeit AFTER dream man Fireman Cam had been send home), rather than be the last man standing and still unsure about what he wanted for his future?
To see Georgia tell him she loves him, only for him to stutter and say "...thanks" because he's not quite there feelings-wise? That, my friends, is something I never want to see.
He was honest with Georgia, and his confessions last night read to me as a genuine 'it's not you, it's me' moment. Courtney was scared.
He didn't want to put everything on the line, only to be Nikki Gogan'd in the final episode after watching Georgia ride off into the sunset with Matty J (fingers crossed).
Courtney also had something eerily in common with one of our favourite girls from this year's season of The Bachelor, Olena.
(Besides the fact that they both had super intense conversations with their potential future significant others on a beach. What's with that?)
We praise Olena for telling Richie she was holding back because she didn't want to get her heart broken and that their relationship outside of the show might be too much of a "hassle".
But when Courtney offers up the same sentiment, expressing his concern that he couldn't give Georgia 100 per cent of his thoughts and feelings because, hello, she is still dating three other guys, we cry 'FUCK BOI'.
Can you imagine trying to figure out if you're ready to date again and then being brutally dumped on national tv #BacheloretteAU
— Amy Zhang (@Ameh_) October 20, 2016
Courtney was honest and true to his feelings same like Olena. Leave him alone peeps. #BacheloretteAU
— Zaro (@BaliZali) October 20, 2016
I honestly believe that Courtney is acting the most normal for a guy that's been on max. two real dates with a girl IRL. #bacheloretteau
— Gyan Yankovich (@GyanYankovich) October 20, 2016
I love how people think Courtney is an arsehole because he's not in love with a woman and told the truth about it #BacheloretteAU
— Ben Pobjie (@benpobjie) October 20, 2016
I think what we read as nonchalance and indifference from Courtney was actually defeat. This is the face of someone who doesn't quite trust the process of falling in love on a reality television show. Who doesn't believe that 10 minutes of time = a romance that could last forever.
That's not to say it can't work for other people. Just not for Courtney.
"Why would you go on the show, then?" I hear you scream. And I get it. That doesn't seem to make any sense.
But who really knows what any experience is going to be like, or how anything is going to work until you are there? Like Courtney said, he didn't expect his time on the show to be so difficult.
And that's totally okay.
At the end of the day, Courtney obviously wasn't the right man for Georgia Love. But we'll always have Matty J.
See which guys are still in the competition for Georgia's heart./em>
