Where in the world is Blake Garvey? A very serious investigation.

As we're introduced to three new Bachelors, one former Bachelor has gone missing: Blake Garvey.

OK, not officially. But the stripper-turned-auctioneer-turned-reality television star has gone into a sort of self-imposed hiding over the past few years, and we have taken it upon ourselves to provide the world with some much-needed analysis; to answer the whos, the whats and the whys of it all.

(And people say ‘real journalism’ is dead. Pft.)

You’ll remember Garvey, we're sure. He was the Perth-based Bachelor from season two; the one with a penchant for ‘dirty street pies’ and blue suits, who boasts a voice as low as he is tall.

If that doesn’t ring any bells, you may know him by another name: ‘the most hated man in Australia’. No? How about ‘Love rat’?

(Not our phrases, for the record.)

Garvey earned the titles from fans and the press, after the shemozzle that was the 2014 finale of the Channel 10 show. While the episode showed his romantic proposal to contestant Sam Frost, Garvey soon announced that he’d subsequently dumped her in favour of second-runner-up, Louise Pillidge.

"When you have that time together and you feel that it’s not quite right, you have to listen to your heart," he told The Project at the time. 

"You have to trust your gut and that’s what I’ve done, and that’s why I’m in this position now."

But alas, feelings are as changeable as Osher Gunsberg’s hair, and the pair split in 2016. It would be disingenuous to say fans didn’t see it coming, but few would have predicted it would be announced in the way it was: via a joint cover shoot for New Idea.

Pillidge told the publication she’d been left "crying, numb and angry" by the breakup, yet there they were, captured in glossy ink, standing side-by-side, gazing forlornly out across the Indian Ocean.

We guess they just wanted us to know.

In the months following, little was heard from Garvey. It's suspected he took the time to work away at his business, Elite Auctions, in Perth, and manage the impressive feat of avoiding detection by the paparazzi, waiting for everyone to cool down and move on.

But as Sam Frost made the jump from reality TV world into commercial radio and later acting, her continued presence in the public eye meant Australia didn't easily forget what happened back in 2014. 

At least she could laugh about it. For Halloween in 2017, Frost went as her then-self. 

"Reliving my nightmare," the then-28-year-old wrote on Instagram. "Getting engaged for 12.3 seconds on national TV."

The jabs, the digs, the constant media requests, none of it could coax a peep out of Garvey until rumours spread that he would make a return to television for Bachelor in Paradise.

"No way, no how, no chance am I going on Bachelors in Paradise," he wrote on Facebook at the time. "That is all."

So at least we know one more thing about where he isn't.

Garvey hasn’t been publicly active on Facebook for years and doesn’t appear to have an Instagram account.

The only thing that confirms he's still alive is his work profile on Domain, where it says he's a real estate agent for Homebuyers Centre WA.

Perhaps he senses we're not quite over 2014? Don't worry Blake, we'll get there. Eventually.

This article has been updated since it's original publish date. 

Image: Network 10. 

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