A former Farmer Wants A Wife winner has called out the reality show after one of this year’s contestants copped the ‘villain edit’. Clarette, 35, has emerged as one of the most divisive participants this season, with viewers criticising her online and accusing her of being “too jealous” about Farmer Thomas’ connections with the other women.
As Channel 7 opens applications for next year’s season of the dating series, 2023 star Olivia Benic has urged the network to make a huge change to help those struggling amid social media backlash. The 26-year-old, who found love with Farmer Matt Young and recently welcomed their first child, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she has an idea on how to improve the contestants’ well-being.
“They always provide psychologists throughout filming and then towards the end, but I feel like that’s kind of there so they can tick a box rather than because they actually care and want support,” she shares.
“I actually reached out to someone who was our executive producer and I was like, ‘You guys should set up a mentoring program with girls who had actually been on the show’, and they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t know’, because it’s just too much work for them to set that up. In terms of actual emotional support for people who’ve had the same lived situation, there’s not much. It’s all kind of on you.”
Olivia reveals Clarette is ‘struggling’
Olivia reveals that she recently got in contact with Clarette to support her while the show airs on TV, as she had a similar experience dealing with negativity online throughout season 13.
“Everyone thinks they know everything, and a girl with a strong personality comes on TV and everyone’s like, ‘No, not having that’. And now the same is happening with Clarette,” she says. “I’ve been talking to Clarette a bit, and it’s so hard for her. She’s a little bit older than us and she’s still struggling, so it’s hard.”
Olivia argues that Clarette hasn’t done anything particularly villainous throughout the show, however, Channel 7 “knows what they’re doing” by portraying her in a negative light.
“They know that anyone who is watchable is going to get the most TV time, and they don’t care how they’re portrayed or how they have to twist the narrative,” she remarks. “Like when Channel 7 realised that Matt and I were getting a lot of attention, even though half of it was negative, they were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to keep posting about Matt and Liv and make all the promos about Matt and Liv’.
“The same thing happened to Daisy [Lamb] and the same thing’s happening to Clarette. It’s hard to watch because I know it’s produced, and to see the narrative controlled in that way pisses me off, to be honest.”
It was recently revealed that Clarette had moved to South Australia to live with Farmer Thomas on his farm in Kimba shortly after filming wrapped late last year.
While Olivia doesn’t want to share too many details about her conversations with Clarette, she says they’ve been bonding about the shared struggles of dealing with the public’s criticism while also navigating a new relationship and moving to a new location.
“For me, it was really hard to move to a small town when people had such a strong opinion of you that was false. Trying to establish yourself as a person is already a huge challenge, and I feel like she’s going through something similar,” she shares.
“She’s trying to establish her identity as someone who she is, rather than someone who she was portrayed as. So that’s been harder for her. And also the fact that Channel 7 says they’re going to protect you and check comments and messages coming through, but they don’t. So that’s something that she’s probably dealing with as well.”
