Days after filming The Bachelor finale, Sophie Tieman received a message from Nick Cummins.

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Four months ago, Sophie Tieman thought she and Nick Cummins were going to end up together.

The 25-year-old from Queensland had met Nick’s family, and he hers. While holidaying (and filming The Bachelor finale) in New Caledonia, Sophie says the 31-year-old told her he wanted her there, that it was always meant to be her and she wasn’t in the final two by default.

Then, Australia watched on as Honey Badger dumped her on national TV. After weeks of asking the property valuer to open up and be more emotional, Nick said he couldn’t give her those emotions back, she wasn’t ‘the one’.

“That actually really hurt me in that moment because I was left so confused,” Sophie told Mamamia.

“By the end, I was confident in saying that I was falling in love with him. But then he said it wasn’t enough and it wasn’t me so confusion really settled in at that point in time. I just wanted to close my eyes, open them up and be back at home.”

A few days after they finished filming the finale and Sophie had had time to come to terms with the fact Nick had decided to choose neither herself or fellow contestant Brittany Hockley, she received a message from Nick.

 

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“It was four months ago now that we filmed the finale. It was soon after filming that Nick reached out via social media, that was the first and last time I heard from him,” she said.

“I’m aware that he reached out to a few of the girls that he’d formed good connections with, he was just sort of touching base and making sure that I was ok and doing well.”

Rather than apologising to her or offering more of an explanation than what we saw on last night’s Bachelor finale, Sophie said it was a brief message that left her feeling confused.

“No [he didn’t say sorry], unfortunately, we didn’t touch on that. It was literally just a real brief check in, and that’s all it really was.”

“Look, I still am left confused as to why he didn’t see enough in me, and I know Britt is just as confused too.”

Mamamia confirmed, unlike some of the other contestants, Britt didn’t have any contact with Nick after filming the show. Instead, he thought it better to contact her brother.

“He did reach out to a few of the girls at the start just to check in and say ‘are you okay?’. Unfortunately for me he didn’t feel like he could do that immediately for whatever reason, I’m not sure,” she said.

“[Nick and my brother] obviously hit it off at the home towns and he [Nick] just said, ‘Heads up, it didn’t work out the way we thought and can you just look after Britt for me’. In one way that was nice but I would have appreciated that call straight up like the others got.”

You can re-watch the brutal finale rejections below. Post continues after video.

As Nick is currently out of the country walking the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea while she and Britt are “left to pick up the pieces” with post-show interviews, Sophie said what she’s most disappointed about is not getting a real explanation from him as to why he didn’t choose her.

Throughout the season, we watched as the bachelor continually pushed Sophie to be more emotional with him and talk about her feelings, and to have that not reciprocated at the end “really sucked”.

“Look, I mean, it sucks that… it’s disappointing that I really let myself go and opened up for Nick, and then to not have that reciprocated. It’s unfortunate that it was with him and not someone that would’ve really appreciate that,” she said.

Ultimately, she doesn’t have any regrets about going on the reality TV show, even if it did end in the most baffling way we’ve ever seen from The Bachelor franchise.

“Did I learn a lot and have I grown a lot because of [being pushed to open up], yes, completely. I can’t hold anything against [Nick] because I’m really happy with how much I grew up in that situation. And it is because he pushed me to do it, so I don’t regret it.”

Do you think Nick Cummins made the right decision to leave The Bachelor alone?

Want to debrief about all things Honey Badger? Get the finale episode of Bach Chat in your ears below.