"Stop saying we aren't together." Matt and Chelsie on those 'Blake Garvey' rumours.

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After four months of secrecy and hidden rendezvous, bachelor Matt Agnew and his winner Chelsie McLeod can finally be open about their relationship.

Today marked many simple firsts for the couple, like the first time they could walk down the street together.

But a coincidence just last weekend almost blew their cover, days before The Bachelor finale aired, confirming that Matt had picked her over runner-up Abbie Chatfield.

Bachelor contestants: Translated. Post continues below video.

The pair, who both live in Melbourne, told Mamamia they have done their digging and found a surprising lack of mutual friends, even though they frequent so many of the same places.

Then last weekend they were both invited to separate parties… at the same venue.

Considering no one could know they were together this posed a wee bit of a logistical issue.

“Our catch ups have all been made for us,” Chelsie explained to Mamamia. “We’ve had a few rendezvous, but we did almost accidentally bump into each other last weekend which is kind of exciting, but also sad that I couldn’t go run up to him.”

Sidenote: Mamamia recaps The Bachelor finale week. Post continues below audio.

Matt agreed it was “very frustrating”, especially given the unlucky timing.

“Literally one weekend later, the fact that we happened to end up at the same place would’ve been a lovely coincidence,” he said. “The two parties we were at just happened to be at the same place, but the fact that it happened the week before like was great, ‘Avoid’.

“We had to kind of track each other, because if we happened to be at the same venue people are going to notice, take photos and then it’s out of our control.”

Chelsie tasked Matt with tracking her location so the two could avoid running into each other, and though he said he “did a poor job”, they successfully remained undercover.

The final week didn’t come without its challenges though, mainly in the form of rumours about a breakup and that Matt had ‘done a Blake Garvey’ and got together with another contestant. FYI, in case it isn’t obvious: This is not true!

Mostly, they’ve been able to laugh at the ridiculous rumours, but admitted this week that has been harder.

“This week, with that pressure and strain added, it does get a bit tough because you can’t weigh in on it and you can’t address it, you get frustrated like, ‘Stop saying we aren’t together!'” Matt said. “Generally you just shrug them off, it was only a few days we had to grind it out but it does get frustrating sometimes.”

 

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Stormy weather overlooking Kilt Rock #isleofskye #scotland #kiltrock #gettinginthewayoftheview #travel

A post shared by Matt Agnew (@drmattagnew) on Sep 17, 2019 at 2:52am PDT

But hey, that doesn’t mean the bach didn’t have a little fun with it. Throughout recent weeks, Matt has been posting photos on Instagram from all parts of Australia – and uh, Scotland – and he confirmed what we knew all along – he was 100 per cent trolling us.

“I genuinely didn’t leave Melbourne! So I was posting up pictures in Broome, Perth, South Australia and then I threw up the Scotland one and I was like ‘Nah, this is too obvious’ but I still got a few articles from it,” he said.

“I was having a bit of fun with it. The gossip rags were going to write whatever they wanted, so at least this way I had some control over it a little bit, throwing up random locations.”

Chelsie said she watched the entire season - meaning she saw her now-boyfriend pash a fair few other women - but it wasn't until the finale that they watched an episode together.

"I had a group of friends who were really supportive and wanted to watch every single week, so I didn't want to let them down and also I felt it was the best environment to watch the show because I had some idea of what was going on, but because all my friends are very noisy and I wasn't listening to a single conversation, it was kind of just on in the background. It was the perfect way to watch it, distracted," she said.

Matt on the other hand... well, he gave up watching a few weeks ago.

"I just decided I didn't really need to watch it. I formed opinions and connections with everyone on the show and I was happy to take those forward with me as the memories I had.

"I didn't need to see any drama that happened behind-the-scenes away from my eyes. I didn't really see any value I could get from seeing that. I knew how the series played out."

Matt and Chelsie told Mamamia they were happy to put "the hardest part" of this crazy experience behind them and were looking forward to now being public with their relationship - oh, and Matt's now stoked he can say 'I love you' back.

Chelsie first said those three words during their final date in South Africa, but bachie rules state the bach cannot say them back. There's the whole other woman thing, remember.

"I can't say [I love you] back obviously but I've got to say something right? Otherwise it's the equivalent of 'thanks'," Matt said. "I do need to be vague and try provide some degree of reassurance without really saying a lot. There's some help in terms of what language to use, but ultimately it's trying to describe how it makes me feel and how important it is to me to know how they feel."

He said that when Chelsie explained her feelings, he really had to 'bite his tongue' to stop himself responding in kind.

"Again I've got to just say 'That's great, amazing, that's wonderful, you make me happy'," he said laughing, causing Chelsie to crack up laughing at the memory.

They only really planned how to get through the four months between filming ended and now, but are now excited at the prospect of planning their future together.

Already today they've divulged some pretty personal details, after Kyle Sandilands asked about their sex life (because of course he did). So have they discussed what's off limits?

Nope, at least not yet.

"I think probably going through a process like this, you need to accept that there's an element of public investment in our relationship," Matt explained.

"There'll be things we share on social media and that to let people know where we're at. That's something that's also part of the process. We're also going to have a lot of moments that we're going to want to keep private and that's ours, and I guess it's finding that balance."