As the nation holds its breath over who will receive the final rose, The Bachelor himself isn’t giving away the slightest clue as to who his top choice will be.
In an 11th grilling by radio host Kyle Sandilands before the two-part finale this week, Richie Strahan stood firm, despite being clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning.
“What was it like the first time you entered her sexually? What happened there?” Kyle asks.
“Was that a great moment?”
Richie, clearly unsettled by the shock jock’s approach, delivered his trademark awkward laugh (“ha ha”), before chastising Kyle.
“Jesus, Kyle!” he responds.
“Mate … you know what I’m like. I’m uh … I’m a pretty chill kind of guy,” Richie says.
But Kyle wasn’t letting him off that easily before The Bachelor finale.
“If I was you, I’d be ploughing all of them [the contestants],” laughs Kyle.
“You’ve decided to do the exact opposite — after all that build-up, how was it?”
But Richie refused to buckle, suggesting that the host may have just been frustrated himself.
“Jeez Kyle, there’s a lot of built-up tension with you, you all right?”
Richie, however, did let listeners in on how difficult it’s been keeping his new love under wraps for so long – the Bali showdown between Olena, Nikki and Alex was filmed weeks ago.
Richie confessed that he’s only managed to see his new girlfriend “three or four times” since the series finished filming.
“You’re getting up early in the morning, jumping in a car, fake names … random airports … going to an isolated place where we can just hang out … and it’s over so quickly,” Richie complains.
“It’s been one of the hardest things ever, but after today and tomorrow — we’re out in the open.”
He also rubbished claims that he had ‘done a Blake Garvey’ and regretted his final choice on The Bachelor finale. Blake did a U-turn and dumped Sam Frost just days after the final ceremony in favour of contestant Louise Pillidge.
“That would be very juicy but there’s no truth to that,” says Richie.
“I am 100 per cent happy.”
- The final episodes of The Bachelor Australia screen on September 14-15, from 7.30pm on Channel Ten.