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"The rug was pulled out from under me." Georgia Love on the breakups that nearly break you.

 

Georgia Love is – or at least, was, before the coronavirus pandemic grounded everything to a halt – planning her dream wedding to her fiance Lee Elliott.

She’s perfectly happy and content in her relationship, which is why it might seem a bit bizarre that she now spends a lot of her time talking about relationships that… don’t work, on her new podcast Everyone Has An Ex.

But the former Bachelorette has plenty from her own unique experience to draw from.

Mamamia confessions: Relationship deal-breakers. Post continues below video.

Video via Mamamia

I have had the horror breakups where the rug was pulled out from under me, and I thought my world was ending, and I had a good six months where I thought ‘Well, that’s it, I’m just by myself now’,” Georgia told Mamamia.

“And then obviously now I’m engaged and incredibly happy and that led to that. I know for myself when you’re in the depths of a breakup and you think your world is ending, it’s so hard to think there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Georgia’s new podcast wasn’t necessarily inspired by her own past relationships, but came organically from a conversation with a friend.

They realised everyone had a breakup story or a story about an ex – who maybe wasn’t who they thought they were, who cheated, who broke their heart so badly they didn’t think they’d ever recover, yet, here they were.

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Georgia Love speaks to Mia Freedman on No Filter. Post continues below audio.

Everyone loves a love story. We seek them out, in movies and books and all the other content we consume. But what about the stories without the happy endings we see in films?

Well, as Georgia discovered, those stories were not only relatable, but super pervy.

“I realised there’s something really juicy and voyeuristic about hearing about other people’s failed relationships,” the Channel 10 reporter said.

“A bit of misery loves company, people who are going through their own heartbreak or their own bad situation, it’s really nice to hear about other people going through the same, or similar, or worse.”

The process had a strange impact on Georgia, bringing her back to a time in her life when she wasn’t as happy as she is now.

“I’ve kind of had to bizarrely put myself back in that head space for a bit,” she said. “I hadn’t thought about that part of my life for a while, but you can’t help it when you’re talking about exes and breakups all the time.”

But this is Georgia Love. She’s a romantic, who found her happily-ever-after with a reality show, a bunch of roses, and an Osher.

georgia-love-engaged
Georgia and Lee were engaged in September 2019. Image: Instagram.
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"I don't want people thinking love is dead," she laughed.

"It's me, so I'm never going to let you feel like love sucks. We're only talking to people that are at a point where they're comfortable talking about their story, right, so we make sure we tell about where they are now... They all end on that hopeful note so people realise you can go through the worst thing, you can be in the foetal position on the floor thinking your life's ended, but there is light at the end of the tunnel after a breakup."

To kick off the season, Georgia spoke to a close friend of hers, who also happened to have had a relationship - and breakup - all of Australia was familiar with.

Everyone Has An Ex's first two episodes are a two-part discussion with Tully Smyth, who made national headlines when she cheated on her girlfriend Tahlia with fellow Big Brother contestant Drew, while filming the reality series in 2013.

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"It was really, really interesting to see the dynamic of them going back over this traumatic experience together, sitting next to each other and hearing them both talk to me in front of the other about what that time was like for each of them," Georgia recalled.

"For Tully and Tahlia's story, I think what surprised me the most, and surprises a lot of people, is that the episode starts with them talking about how they're ex-girlfriends but they're also besties. They're going through the story and recounting how [Tully] cheated, and I'm going 'Woah, how on earth are you possibly friends now?' So I was really fascinated to hear that."

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The podcast is the first time Tahlia has ever shared her side of the story, and yep, it's juicy.

"Another thing I found really interesting about that was just the way Tahlia describes watching the show.

"I think the whole of Australia was watching that show thinking 'Oh god, what on earth is that girl thinking at home?' and it's really fascinating to hear her talk about that. Often it was Tully we were talking about in the story, but it's Tahlia's story too."

The rest of the season is just as fascinating, and well, a bit bonkers. The ideal distraction in our strange new COVID-19 world.

"There's everything: Attempted murder, death, a sex change, there's a lot of juicy details from a lot of different people and a lot of different stories. Things you don't expect - one woman decided she was actually in love with her best friend, after two children a man decided that he maybe enjoyed dressing up in drag a little too much and needed to explore that."

Georgia Love is happily in love and looking forward to a post-COVID world where she can continue planning a wedding.

But in the meantime, let's talk about exes.

Georgia Love's podcast Everyone Has An Ex is available now, where ever you get your pods.

Feature image: Instagram.