If you didn’t know much about Bachelor Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins before his turn on this season’s The Bachelor, you could be forgiven for thinking he is just a loveable larrikin ex-footy player looking for love and always out for a laugh.
And well, yes he is all those things, but it turns out there’s a lot more to the Honey Badger than meets the eye, and that is, in part, due to heartbreak which has struck close to home and shaped who he is.
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Nick, one of eight siblings, was raised by his single father Mark in Logan City, south of Brisbane. Speaking with CNN in 2016 Nick revealed his parents divorced when he was younger and is still in touch with her.
Two of his siblings, Lizzie and Joe, were both diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis growing up which put a lot of pressure on their father’s single income.
In 2012 after years of chasing his dream, Nick finally scored a spot representing Australia in the Wallabies, however this same year, his beloved father was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer.
Ever the family man, Nick ended up making the difficult decision to leave the team in 2014 in order to play for the Japanese rugby team the Coca-Cola Red Sparks which paid significantly more money and could help him provide for his family, News Corp. He was granted leave from his contract early on compassionate grounds.
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“He told me that in his heart he couldn’t enjoy himself when he could be doing more for the kids,” his dad Mark explained at the time.
“Nick said he could kick in more by signing in Japan where he will get more time off to return to the family and also research alternative medicines.”
Speaking of his decision at the time, Nick opened up about why he chose to walk away from his dream.
“Every day is a struggle, every breath is a struggle… constant medication, constant coughing, constant vomiting, just struggling just to keep afloat and if you want to talk about courage yeah, that’s two examples of it there,” he told Sunday Night in 2016. “I wanted to get a safety net in an account just ready for troubling times.”
Nick played rugby in Japan for two years before retiring in 2016 and is now your 2018 Bachelor and looking for love, and someone who shares his same values.
“Someone you actually want to spend time with, someone who is unconditional in their approach and service to others in life,” Nick told marie claire of his ideal woman. “As in giving back to those less fortunate and living a life of meaning is probably one of the more important things because that is something worth getting behind.”
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