During Wednesday night’s dramatic Bachelor In Paradise rose ceremony, there was enough ugly crying to give Kim Kardashian a run for her money.
Contestant Nina Rolleston, who was blindsided by Eden Schwencke’s decision to not give her a rose, is still shaken by the turn of events—and the experience of watching it on national television.
“I probably cried through most of it and haven’t stopped since,” she tells marie claire. “It’s been a really, really tough twelve hours.”
Following her shock exit, we caught up with Nina to talk social media backlash, Canadian Daniel and the moment that didn’t make it to air.
What in particular upset you while watching back last night’s episode?
Apart from the copious amounts of abuse that I’ve been receiving online, I guess it’s just being that someone that I genuinely cared about giving me an ultimatum in something that was really awkward to me. When you end a conversation with ‘You’re my girl, let’s hug it out,’ it sort of made me feel like this was something that we would continue to work on, speak about and possibly compromise on in the future. It was definitely a complete blindside for me.
Are you still mad at Eden?
One hundred percent. It did happen a few months ago and I had thought that I had moved on from it, but just watching the show and seeing how close we were, it reaffirmed the connection that I really thought we did have. Then, to see that within a day and a half of someone new walking in you could just sweep away everything that we had been through together… I had that temptation with Daniel and I still picked Eden.
I’m sorry to hear about the social media backlash—that sounds awful.
It’s been disgusting to be honest, I literally have not slept since the episode last night because I was deleting abusive horrible comments for nearly ten hours straight. It’s been disgusting abuse saying that I should have given [Eden] intimacy, we had known each other for long enough, and how disgusting to make someone wait that long.
I can’t get my head around how people think it’s okay to tell a woman what she should do with her own body in the times of the #MeToo movement. That just blows my mind, when you’re talking about consent and that they feel they have a right to comment on what I feel is right and comfortable for my body.
It’s definitely part of a wider conversation. Are there any huge moments that didn’t make it to air?
Eden and I pretty much spent all day every day together, for the ten days we were there. I woke up every morning to him coming into my bungalow and giving me a good morning kiss on the cheek and we would go kayaking every morning, we would go have breakfast together, we would hang out all day and all night together, it would be him every single day tucking me into bed and saying goodnight. When people question our connection and our relationship that we had with each other, it’s really hard to relay or get across how much time we spent together.
Do you still keep in touch with Canadian Daniel Maguire after leaving the show?
I do, Daniel and I have a really great friendship and he’s been such an amazing support through this whole process and has been on the phone to me pretty much all night, supporting me and trying to stop the tears. It’s been great having him there.
Can you see that friendship developing into anything romantic?
Look, I think if distance wasn’t such a big thing… It’s pretty hard to cement something or build something fresh if you’re on opposite sides of the world. I don’t think that there’s a chance that it could turn into anything more but it’s definitely a very special friendship and we have a really great respect for each other.
When you were in Fiji, who looked like the most loved-up couple?
Oh god, Tara and Sam were so loved-up! The cutest thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life. So funny, so loving and they both have such a deep level to their personalities that they really connect.
Some of the contestants have reportedly been hooking up behind the scenes. Is that something you noticed?
Yeah look, there’s definitely relationships taking the next step and we are living with each other 24/7 and have the freedom of flexibility as we wish in paradise. You can choose where you’d like to sleep and if you’d share rooms or how much time you’d like to spend with people and things like that. So there are definitely things that people are comfortable with happening. We’re all adults and the production crew were very aware of that and very supportive of the choices we wanted to make.
I’m very curious to know if you’ve watched the show UnREAL?
I haven’t, no! When I left The Bachelor, some women felt so extremely manipulated and I was at the complete opposite spectrum of that. I think it just comes down to your mindset and the way that you see the situation and how emotionally involved you are in it. There’s people that say it’s really true and then there are a lot of us who think that it’s very untrue.
Lastly, are you seeing anyone at the moment?
No, completely single. Very excited for my first weekend out to be openly single and to not have to keep people guessing over whether I’m single or not. It’s going to be a nice change!
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