Quitting your job to go on reality TV in the hopes of love might seem crazy, but Farmer Wants A Wife‘s Mieke has no regrets about her decision to do just that!
The flight attendant, 22, was hoping to get time off to film the Channel Seven show, but when that wasn’t possible, she made the bold move to leave her job.
With no promise that she’d get picked by Farmer Zac, it was certainly a risk, but one that paid off when she was chosen to go back to the farm.
So, why did she quit her job for Zac? She insists it wasn’t quite as wild a move as people might think.
“I had planned on quitting my job anyway,” she exclusively tells New Idea.
“I hadn’t planned on quitting that soon. But I’d been with the company since I was 18, so I was quite young when I started, and I kind of just felt like I’d run my course there.”
After nearly four years working for Virgin Australia, Mieke was ready to move on, with FWAW feeling like it was “meant to be” when the opportunity came up.
“I didn’t want to let an opportunity pass me by,” she says.
“It just felt like it was meant to be really more than anything.”
However, Mieke wasn’t without her doubts, and admits she was terrified about not being one of the five women chosen by Zac when the moment came.
“It was kind of like ‘what will be will be’, but definitely, when I was standing in that barrel room and like waiting to be chosen, I was like thinking about a million things,” she tells us.
I was like, ‘Oh my God, have I just ruined my life? Have I just quit my job sporadically, and then I’m not even going to make it back to the farm?'”
“I definitely had a bit more on the line than most other people.”
Thankfully, her family were very supportive of her decision, and her mum was actually the one to send her the advert in the first place!
“Obviously, it was a weird circumstance, but like my whole family was really, really supportive,” she explains.
“And more than anything, they were encouraging it. I was obviously really nervous about quitting my job, really, for a man.”
“I was definitely hesitant about it. But they were like, ‘No, bite the bullet, you never know what’s going to come over, like, you only live once, like, if you don’t do it, you’ll regret it’.”
Her family may have had that added element of support, given Mieke actually already has a connection to Farmer Zac!
Mieke grew up on a sheep farm around the corner from Zac’s apple farm in the Adelaide Hills, and while they hadn’t spoken before, she knew of him and recognised his advert.
In a twist of fate, Mieke already knows Zac’s sister, which further encouraged her to apply, feeling like it was written in the stars for her.
“My mum actually sent me his profile, and everything just felt like it was meant to be,” she explains.
“I was over in Melbourne working when mum sent it to me, and I was like, ‘Why not, let’s give it a crack’.”
She put a lot on the line to join FWAW, so will it be enough to win over Zac’s heart? We will have to wait and see!
Farmer Wants A Wife continues on Sunday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven.
