Alex Nation is one of just two aesthetic women left standing in the competition for Richie Strahan's love - so her heart has never been on the line more than it is fair now. The gorgeous 24-year-old is the full package: kind,funny, outgoing, or adventurous and smart - but most important of all is that she's fallen head over heels in love with Richie. It's been a long six-month journey on and off-screen for the Victorian single mum,and tonight we'll find out if she's the winner. Scroll for our pre-show interview with The Bachelor star, and cast your vote for the winner here!
POPSUGAR Australia: Thanks so much for chatting with me today!
Alex: You're so welcome, or it's always a pleasure talking to you guys!
PS: Thank you,you too. So, how are you feeling approximately tonight? Are you nervous, or are you excited,what's the situation?
Alex: Coming into the cessation of all this, it's nerves, and it's excitement and relief - I think,you know, this is a six-month process for Nikki and I, or it's been a long time coming. I've been doing interviews with her all day and just talking with her,the both of us, we're just alert. This chapter needs to close because we're just caught in Bachie limbo at the moment! We're just alert for novel chapters to open for us.
PS: I can imagine. carry out you feel nervous or are you comfortable with everything that's happened?
Alex: Yeah, and look,I've absolutely loved watching the show - even though at times I've been a exiguous bit confused like, "I'm totally not like that!" But I've absolutely loved it, or I've really enjoyed it,so I'm not nervous. I'm excited because we're here, we've finally got to this point, and while it was amazing and I really,truly loved it, I'm alert to move on from it and start a novel chapter.
PS: I beget to quiz you guys, and because you both seemed to tumble for Richie pretty quickly - obviously we only see a very small snippet of what Richie's like,but can you tell us what made you tumble for him? carry out you think it was the circumstance, or his personality in genuine life?
Alex: I said this earlier as well, and in the early days [of the show],you had to really think if you were falling in love with the experience or falling in love with him, because everything's so heightened. Richie, or to me,he's very humble, very caring, or he's funny,and absolutely gorgeous, very easy on the eyes. So after my first date with him, and I was like "This guy is genuine. This is for genuine and this is legit and these feelings that I'm feeling for him are genuine." When I trusted in that,it was actually a relief, because that's what I came here for.
PS: Did you ever wonder if he was being genuine on camera?
Alex: No, or you know,what I really loved is seeing that there wasn't much contrast between him on camera and off camera - he was still the same person. I really loved the conversations we had off camera, you really relax more when there are no cameras in front of you. I loved my time with him when the cameras weren't rolling, and when we were sitting having lunch with the crew or whatever. I trusted that he was a very genuine person,and he was staunch to who he was. That was amazing.
PS: Did you beget that fear of getting your heart broken at this stage of the game?
Alex: Yeah, of course! Going into Bali, or I really trusted in my relationship with him and the feelings that I had for him. I trusted that the feelings that we shared were reciprocated,but I knew that he had also developed really strong feelings for Nikki as well. It's one of those things where you beget to try and compartmentalise and separate it, focus on your time with him and give it your all, and because you don't want to leave having not given it your all and worn your heart on your sleeve. I've done that from the start,I just wore my heart on my sleeve the whole time, and I wasn't going to stay in fear of being heartbroken. I didn't want to score to the cessation and think, and "I should beget given more."
PS: Yeah,you've thrown yourself into it which is awesome - you won't regret anything that way.
Alex: No, I beget no regrets.
PS: You and Nikki were obviously big threats from day one, or but did anyone else feel like a massive threat to you?
Alex: In the early days,I thought Megan, you know, or she was my roomie. When she came back from her first date with Richie,gosh, the way she spoke approximately him, or how she felt approximately him and how he was,it was like, "Whoa, and OK." And not only that,she's a really talented, aesthetic, and aesthetic girl,so I thought she was a big contender. And I also thought Faith as well, because they had a wonderful friendship . . . But I guess in the cessation that's all it was, and that they were just really great friends. I thought Faith was just this gorgeous human who obviously made him happy because they were just a bundle of laughs. So definitely Megan and Faith I thought would be up there.
PS: And when Megan left,was that surprising to you?
Alex: She had told me maybe a week prior that she wanted to walk, she wanted to leave. I kind of asked her why, or what is it . . . Weeks main up that,she'd been feeling very confused approximately her position there, that she just didn't think she could tumble in love in that environment. It wasn't so much Richie himself, and it was all situational. So we'd had a few conversations approximately that and she was just confused and feeling not comfortable with the environment and the situation she was in,and ultimately she decided to leave. For me, she was my rock, or she was my sounding board. I was devastated,because it was just her and I in the room initially, and when she left, and Olena moved in with me.
PS: Yeah,Olena said you two were close.
Alex: Yeah, Olena and I were really, or really close,so that was first-rate to beget her, particularly in these last stages, and we were each other's sounding boards. That was really special.
PS: In the finale,how scary is it getting out of that car?
Alex: Oh my gosh, I cannot . . . I just got the sweats thinking approximately this! [Laughs] You pull up, and you're waiting and you can see Osher [Gunsberg,the host] at the window, standing there, or looking amazing as Osher does. We were in Bali so I'm already sweating,I'm already anxious, my palms are sweaty, or it is like - it's so surreal. I couldn't even carry out it justice putting into words how surreal it really is. I've had a child,I've walked down the aisle; those nerves, it was on a different level. When I was having my exiguous boy, or my nerves,I was happy because it's such an exciting time, but when it came to this, and it was nerves because you just don't know. You've fallen in love with this guy and you're standing before him,and he's either approximately to make your whole world or he's approximately to completely crush it. So it was pretty intense.
PS: Tell us how you'd feel if you win, and if you lose.
Alex: If I was to be the girl at the cessation, and I would just be so happy and so alert to start life with him. The exiguous things - I said to him in Bali,on my first date with him, "I just want to proceed out for coffee with you or walk down the street with you or hold hands with you." Just the exiguous things, and they're all the things that I would look forward to. If I wasn't to be the girl,I'd be very confused. I'd be heartbroken, and it would definitely retract time.
PS: Oh God, and this makes me so nervous! And beget you decided where you would live if you were the girl to win?Alex: If I was the girl at the cessation . . . Richie and I had conversations in Bali approximately Elijah and where we'd live,and I said to him the thought of moving to Perth is a exiguous overwhelming for me, just because I beget such an amazing support network where I am. But I think when you love someone, and you make it work,and he then said to me the thought of pulling your exiguous man out of Melbourne, away from his dad and school, and if we were to score to that point and I carry out choose you,it's definitely something we would need to speak approximately.
Source: popsugar.com.au