Alex Nation has been attacked for her parenting, career and relationship. It needs to stop.

It’s been three weeks since The Bachelor ended and the vitriol aimed at Alex Nation is raging on.

Only now it has taking a far nastier turn, beyond the throwaway remarks damning Richie for choosing single mum Alex over country girl Nikki.

When the nation was in a collective state of shock, we could be forgiven for any initial outrage at the finale result.

Of course, we realise now that we were completely punk’d by the show’s sneaky producers who gave us only snippets of the love story between Alex and Richie while ramping up Nikki’s narrative. Ah, the ‘reality’ of reality TV.

Since then, the pair has finally been able to enjoy each other’s company in the open after months of secrecy. And they look smitten. Just like any other couple in the throes of ~young love~.

A photo posted by Richie Strahan (@richie_strahan) on Sep 18, 2016 at 8:16pm PDT

But 25-year-old Alex continues to cop the kind of hate no winner of The Bachelor has before. It’s ultra personal, and it’s ultra vicious.

Just this week, we’ve had reports about The Bachelorette‘s Georgia Love accidentally referring to Alex as a “crazy person”. We’ve also seen articles about relatives chucking thinly veiled jabs at Alex’s parenting and modelling work.

Her former sister-in-law shared an image on Instagram with the phrase, “She says I’m a model… but pays for her own shoots”.

The same woman also shared an image of Alex’s five-year-old son Elijah with dad Joel Porter and his partner on the day of The Bachelor finale.

The caption read: “You are the real winners. You both have that kid’s heart.”

My heart is so full ∞ #thislegend #littledude #littlemonster #monkey #lijey #LG #mymainman #motherandson

A photo posted by alexandra nation (@alexandranation) on Jan 16, 2016 at 11:03pm PST

The post came after Joel’s partner shared a now-deleted Instagram image that said: “Too bad you are only a good mother on Facebook and the rest of the time you neglect your child,” to which the ex sister-in-law commented, “not naming names”.

While we can’t be 100 per cent certain these posts were directed at Alex, they were seized on by a flurry of news outlets that reported them as such.

As a result we’ve ended up with a squillion unnecessary, negative stories about her with no sign of waning.

The digs need to stop, and so does the drawing attention to them. Because all this does is feed the ravenous public hatred of a real, young woman has done nothing to deserve constant public backlash.

It became evident this hunger was going nowhere when the identity of Alex’s ex-husband was released and people gushed over him. What a hero! He’s being a parent! To his own kid! Who’da thunk it!

Meanwhile, Alex was painted as a demon of a mother for splitting her time between her newfound love and raising her son.

What is so wrong with that? Is this not the very same thing the man she co-parents with has been doing?

Father day breaks at Elijah school this.morn, great morning, he gave @ashydaisy17 and I a personalized tour! Great start to fathers day this weekend #fatherandson #fathersday #dadlife

A photo posted by jtporter (@jtporter) on Sep 1, 2016 at 4:32pm PDT

I have no doubt Joel is a devoted dad. So why do people doubt Alex is a devoted mum? Let’s not allow backwards, asshole prejudices to endlessly cloud our opinion of Alex.

If I’m fed up with the misdirected bullying, I don’t want to imagine how Alex feels about it. No aspect of her life is safe: from her relationship, to her parenting, her career, even her personality.

Throughout The Bachelor experience, she has acted as a great sport. She had not expected to be portrayed on the show as a ‘crazy, stage-five clinger’ and she certainly never anticipated the storm of criticism.

Yes, she became pregnant young. Yes, she has been married before. Yes, she has pursued a modelling career. Yes, shed a few tears on The Bachelor. And yes, she fell for Richie and was intensely hopeful he felt the same way.

And no, none of this is unusual, and nor is it fodder for hate.

Like all of us, Alex does the best she can and she is doing a stellar job. She clearly adores her son. This has been clear from day one. She takes pride in her modelling work. And she now has a new man in her life to love. That’s a beautiful thing.

So let’s do something rather revolutionary: cut the crap and wish them every happiness.