Being blindsided by a lover is an experience familiar to many, but for The Golden Bachelor runner-up Janette Bendle, she’s had to have her heartbreak play out on national television.
Although her ‘break-up’ with Barry “Bear” Myrden at the final rose ceremony happened back in April, Janette’s emotions are still raw.
Finally able to share her side of the split, the divorced mum, 61, tells New Idea in an exclusive post-finale chat she was truly shocked when Bear chose Sunny Long over her.
“I was sure it was me,” she admits. “I didn’t have a doubt. I had no speech formed in my head for if it wasn’t me. I only had what I wanted to say if it was me. That’s how confident I was.”
Reliving that awful day, Janette says she felt calm on her way to see Bear, 61.
However, as soon as she saw his eyes she knew something wasn’t right.
“I saw sadness. And in that split second, I thought, ‘oh’,” she reveals.
Once the dumping had occurred, all she wanted to do was be alone and cry.
“He was saying lovely stuff about me being authentic but I can’t even remember the words,” she explains. “It was a bit of a blur… I was trying to think, ‘what’s going to happen here?’ And then when Bear said, ‘you do deserve to find love, but it won’t be with me,’ the first thing that came into my head was, which is genuinely how I feel, ‘as long as that decision comes from your heart, then it’s the right one.’”
Janette says she put on “a brave face” but in reality went into “protection mode”.
“I wanted to get off that mountain. I wanted to get my dress off, my shoes off. It’s almost like I wanted to strip myself of the day,” she confesses.
With the clarity of time, Janette now believes that Bear “made a little bit of a fool” of her.
All season long she had been the favourite to win. She received both the first and final solo dates, leaving Janette convinced she and Bear had a true connection.
Janette says she and Bear haven’t spoken since the finale, save for a polite ‘hello’ at the show’s October premiere. But she’s now ready to sit down with him and get some answers.
“I would like to hear from the horse’s mouth and look into his eyes – because you can always see whether it’s the truth,” she says. “I would like to ask why he didn’t choose me. Not that it matters in any way, but something about it didn’t feel right.”
After watching the show air, Janette admits she saw “more of a connection” between Bear and Sunny, 58, than what she felt during filming.
Looking to the future, Janette says she is ready to start dating again.
“I still believe in fairytales and I hope my love story still happens,” she says with a smile.
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