She was a front runner on The Bachelor throughout the entire season, but sadly, after being plagued by rumours, Jay Lal was sent home.
It was a difficult decision for Jimmy, who had an undeniable connection with the nutritionist, but after finding it harder to trust her as each day passed, he knew he had to let her go.
POPSUGAR Australia had the chance to speak with Jay and hear her side of the story.
POPSUGAR Australia: When you were eliminated, how did you feel about Jimmy at that point?
Jay Lal: Well watching it back, when I was eliminated, I was obviously really upset, but I’m not gonna lie, going into that rose ceremony, I kind of had an inkling I was going to be leaving that night. That was just because at our final single date, he was still questioning my integrity, and I thought he should know me by now. So I kind of had an inkling I was going that night. I obviously really liked the guy, you could tell by how upset I was when I left, but I kind of prepared myself for that.
PS: Speaking of questioning your integrity, does it hurt to watch the show back and seeing Jimmy not trusting you?
JL: Yeah it kind of caught me off guard watching it back! Because I didn’t realise how big of an issue those rumours were, because I knew they weren’t true, I knew that they were ridiculous. But I didn’t realise how much it swayed his opinion, so I think in hindsight, I probably would have tried to explain myself a little bit more, but I just feel like, in that experience, he made me feel like I didn’t need to, he made me feel like he trusted me. So yeah it caught me off guard, to be honest.
PS: Do you feel like it was fair that your dating history was brought up?
JL: I was actually so shocked as to why he thought it was such a big deal, to be honest, so I need to set the record straight with this. I dated this guy when I was 26, I’m 32 now. When I dated him he was not The Bachelor of New Zealand, he was not well known, and it wasn’t actually until — I think it was 5 days before I left to film for the show — I found out that he was The Bachelor of New Zealand, which I thought was quite funny. It was such an irrelevant thing to be brought up, and I don’t know why it was made to be such a big deal, to be honest.
PS: I completely agree with you, when I was watching the show I did think it was quite irrelevant as you dated him so long ago.
JL: Yeah! The thing is, he was an opera singer so he was known but not well known and definitely not The Bachelor of New Zealand, so I mean I just don’t know why Jimmy was so worried about that.
PS: Do you have any regrets about your time on the show? Would you do anything differently?
JL: Do you know what, I’m so happy with how I was on the show. I think what you see on TV is only a tiny bit, so I think I went in there just wanting to be genuine, just be myself, not change in front of the cameras, not change in front of Jimmy, just be myself and that’s what I did. So I’m happy with how it all went, I was always nice to the girls, I was always quite considerate, and that was always one of the things I wanted to do going into the experience.
PS: What have you taken away from this entire experience?
JL: I don’t really know, that’s a good question. Probably to continue to be myself, and maybe I wouldn’t go on a dating show for a while again *laughs*.
PS: Who do you think will be the last woman standing? Brooke or Holly?
JL: Well, this is a funny one. While I was in the experience, I don’t know what his connections were like with the other girls because I don’t see it. But watching the show, you can just tell how in love he is with Brooke, and even though she’s telling him all these things that he obviously doesn’t want to hear, he still keeps her. So I’m thinking it might be Brooke at the end.
PS: Tell us, what’s up next for you?
JL: So at the moment I have my business, Jay Rose Wellness, I’m a nutritionist. And I’m also working in the insurance industry as well, and just keeping fit and sane during this lockdown pretty much.
