"It was a mess." Alex Nation on splitting with Bill three weeks after leaving Bachelor in Paradise. 

Alex Nation and Bill Goldsmith committed to take their relationship into the real world on Thursday night’s Bachelor in Paradise finale.

But at the reunion special, Bill Goldsmith didn’t even show his face.

Although Bill and Alex declared their love to each other and left Paradise together, within just a few weeks, their relationship in the outside world was well and truly over.

The Quicky went deep on the history of gaslighting. Post continues after podcast.

Speaking to Mamamia, Alex said that when she and Bill left Paradise, their relationship quickly changed.

“It was an amazing two, three weeks. It was really nice getting to know each other,” Alex told Mamamia.

“But all of a sudden, there was a huge shift in our relationship. He started to get distant, he was very distracted and I knew that something wasn’t quite right,” she continued.

“In the end, my intuition was right. We had a discussion about our relationship and he told me that he didn’t love me, even though he told me he loved me on the show. So that kind of finished our relationship.”

Early on in the reality TV series, Bill went on a date with fellow contestant Florence, while he was committed to Alex.

With no clue of what had really happened between Bill and Florence on their date, watching it play out on screen when the episode aired was “really hard” for Alex.

Alex and Florence discuss their relationships with Bill on Bachelor in Paradise. Post continues after video…

“In a way, I knew that something was going on [between Florence and Bill] and I didn’t like the feeling of being made to look silly,” Alex told Mamamia.

“It was hard, because every time I asked him, ‘what’s going on?’, he would say ‘that’s not right, that’s not true’. I had one girl, who was distraught and upset and then Bill, who was getting quite defensive and upset about it too,” she continued.

“When I watched it back, I was really disappointed by the things I saw that I kind of overlooked when I was in there. I wanted to believe him.”

Alex was particularly shocked to see Bill’s aggressive behaviour towards Florence while watching the show back,

“There was no excuse for the way he spoke to [Florence], like no one should speak to a woman or anyone like that,” Alex said.

“When the show was on, Florence and I were messaging each other the whole time. We kept in contact and supported each other.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Alex Nation (@alexandranation) on May 1, 2019 at 6:27pm PDT

During the show, many viewers slammed Bill’s behaviour as gaslighting.

“[His behaviour] definitely comes across as gaslighting,” Alex told Mamamia.

“He clearly had said one thing to [Florence] and then said another thing to me. You start to get inside your own mind and question, am I crazy? Is he telling the truth? The whole 24 hours was a mess.”

Speaking to Mamamia, fellow contestant Florence agreed that Bill’s behaviour should “absolutely” be considered as gaslighting.

“I don’t understand why he can’t see what he is doing or why he thinks he can get away with lying to people’s faces,” Florence told Mamamia.

“I think it’s a bit scary, the behaviour that he has shown, and how he keeps doing it. He does not give a rats.”

For more on this topic:

• Why we need to pay close attention to the behaviour of the men on Australian reality TV.
• ‘There are parts we didn’t show.’ What Osher Gunsberg wants us to know about Ivan and Tenille.
• It’s time we talked about the men on Bachelor in Paradise.

Want more TV and Movies? Visit our newsletter page and sign up to “TV and Movies”  for a backstage pass to the best movies, TV shows and celebrity interviews, from our Entertainment Editor Laura Brodnik (see one of her newsletters here)