Home CELEBRITY

Locky in love! Unpacking Locky Gilbert’s reality TV romances

From Survivor to The Bachelor.
Loading the player...

Locky Gilbert is one of the few stars from The Bachelor Australia to find success on the franchise, still madly in love with his winner Irena Srbinovska more than a year later.

WATCH: Locky Gilbert on SAS Australia

Irena Srbinovska

From the minute Irena set foot on the Bachie red carpet, the chemistry between the pair was undeniable. And the reality star was quick to call it out too, telling Locky: “I think I heard your heart skip a beat.”

Despite having a season interrupted with COVID, Locky and Irena managed to find love, with the roof plumber declaring he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life with the nurse.

As they took their relationship into the real world, the couple faced many hurdles that only served to make their relationship stronger.

From border closures making it impossible to visit her father Vasco following a medical emergency, to suffering a miscarriage, Irena was dealt a bad hand.

“But Locky was my absolute rock and having his support made me love him even more,” she told our sister publication WHO.

After travelling on a six-month trip, the pair have now settled in Perth and are very much on the same page when it comes to starting a family.

locky-irena
Locky and Irena. (Credit: Instagram)

“We talk about what kind of wedding we want all the time and are both keen to start a family. We aren’t spring chickens, so it’ll happen sooner rather than later,” Locky said.

The sentiment was later echoed by Irena on Instagram.

“I can’t wait to be a mum. It’s something I’ve always looked forward to. And I can’t wait to see Locky as a dad, he’s a little clucky too,” Irena responded to a fan on Instagram who asked her about having a baby in late 2021.

“Having the miscarriage last year was upsetting. Since then I’ve seen a specialist and got all the tests done so hopefully we won’t have any issues,” she admitted.

“I know I have the biological clock ticking (it’s something that I am very aware of), but I am hopeful that a baby or two is in the near future.

“But not too near,” she clarified. “I just got back to work and can’t go straight to maternity leave.”

locky-gilbert-brooke-jowett
Locky and Brooke. (Credit: Ten)

Brooke Jowett

Before Irena captured his heart, Locky was involved in a different reality TV romance with Survivor’s Brooke Jowett.

After meeting Locky in person on Australian Survivor: All Stars, Brooke told our sister publication TV WEEK the connection was “instant”.

“We’d chatted a bit through Instagram beforehand – nothing crazy, just talking about travel – but I thought he was cute too. As soon as we got there, we were joined at the hip.”

Sadly, their relationship didn’t translate into the real world, with the distance between them playing a huge factor in their inability to make it work.

“He’s in Perth and Bali, and I’m in Melbourne. His work means he’d want me to go to him, but I won’t leave my family and my dog. I’m also really focused on my career,” Brooke said.

“It’s a lot more difficult in the real world than it was out there.”

When Locky announced he was going to be on The Bachelor, Brooke told the Shameless podcast that she was “blindsided”.

“I had these plans with him and obviously they’re not going ahead. So that’s hard to deal with,’ she said, referring to her Bali travel plans with Locky.

“I do feel screwed over. I do feel hurt, but Locky is just a small part of my story.”

Following the bachie announcement, Locky addressed his romance with Brooke on KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O Show saying the Survivor alum was an “amazing girl” but their time together had come to an end.

“It was quite a while ago and on the show you just want to have that person that you can fully trust, and like, if you don’t you can kind of lose your mind out there. So, me and Brooke just connected, we had lots to talk about. I think that really helped me in the game.”

locky-gilbert-jordan-cayess
Locky and Jordan. (Credit: Instagram)

Jordan Cayless

Before his Survivor romance, Locky dated former Love Island Australia contestant Jordan Cayless, who was announced as an intruder months after she and Locky were last pictured together on Instagram.

The pair, who met during an Australia (Invasion) Day party in Perth, were in a long-distance relationship for three years, with Locky telling TV WEEK that their relationship had “always been away from each other”.

Locky revealed that while Jordan was “secure” in their romance, she was still concerned he’d be tempted to cheat.

“She’s a little worried about me,” he confessed on the Kyle and Jackie O show at the time.

“We watched a few Survivors together and she was like, ‘Oh no you’re going to have to cuddle people’.”

“We had like a cuddling rule, like no touching at the waist and stuff.”

Then, in August 2020, Jordan exclusively claimed to New Idea that Locky had cheated on her while on an overnight trip to Singapore.

“I was at home working on our business, and I got a message from a girl on Instagram saying she was so sorry to do this, but she thought that I should know that she went home with Locky that night.

“I called her and spoke to her on the phone and she told me he was at a bar and she asked him several times throughout the night if he had a girlfriend and he said no. Locky still denies this. But they ended up going back to her place and they slept together twice.”

Locky’s decision to go on The Bachelor made perfect sense to Jordan, who suggested that he was simply on the show for attention.

“I’m not surprised – dating 24 girls is like Locky’s dream come true. He’s always wanted to be the Bachelor – he’s even mentioned it to me before. He just loved girls wanting him and I’m honestly nervous for who he ends up with.

“He is not on it to find love. He just wants that attention, to be that guy walking down the street who is the Bachelor. He’ll want to have that following behind him to lift up his business in Bali.”

For a romance without the reality TV drama, sign up for eharmony!

eharminy

Can’t get enough SAS Australia content? Check out the articles below

Where is SAS Australia filmed?

SAS Australia’s Ollie Ollerton’s whirlwind romance with his wife Laura 

A chance meeting at a bar and four kids: Who is Ant Middleton’s wife Emilie?

EXCLUSIVE: SAS’ Pauly Fenech dishes on Locky Gilbert’s “unforgivable” betrayal

Millie Boyle’s sporting family sticks together through thick and thin

SAS’ Darius Boyd has fought hard for his marriage to his wife Kayla

SAS is only the latest challenge Riana Crehan has had to face

Related stories