FROM WOMENS DAY....
It's finally official: Blake Garvey is in a relationship with
The Bachelor's second runner-up Louise Pillidge.
Rumours have been swirling that Blake, 31, had fallen for Louise, 26, since the real estate agent and male strip company owner unceremoniously dumped the show's winner Sam Frost weeks after proposing.
Now the couple have come clean by via an exclusive interview with
Woman's Day - and they say they're more in love than ever.
Days after breaking off his engagement, Blake tracked down Louise's father and gave him a five-page letter to pass on to the bubbly blonde.
A few days before the finale aired Louise received the letter, in which Blake admitted he'd made a mistake letting her go.
© Network Ten Blake and Louise in an episode of 'The Bachelor'.
"My one wish is that I don't want to just be your first love, I want to be your first, last and only," it read.
The smooth-talker told the magazine he deeply regretted proposing to Sam, but eliminated Louise because she was the one he wanted to hurt least.
"She's so fragile that I thought I was protecting her," he said.
"The love I felt for Lou (didn't end) and as much as I tried to file it away, it kept growing."
Louise said she was overcome with emotion after reading Blake's heartfelt words.
"It took me a while to process, but that letter was one of the most overwhelming things I had ever experienced," she said.
After a fortnight of intimate phone calls the couple went to Thailand for their first in-person reunion since Blake let her go in South Africa two months earlier.
"The moment she walked into my arms I knew I was in love with her and I told her as much," Blake said of the secret rendezvous in Koh Samui.
Louise also opened up about the pair's first night together, calling it "beautiful".
Reality TV shocks
Now the Queenslander plans to move in with her new partner in his home city of Perth, and says marriage is on the cards.
Though she'll have to live without the $58,000 engagement ring Sam now gets to keep, which she jokes she'll "never let him live down".
The pair's announcement comes after Blake repeatedly dodged questions on whether he was dating one of the other bachelorettes, saying his focus was on getting over his split with Sam.
After hearing the news the "heartbroken" blonde criticised both Blake and Louise for not showing her the "respect and courtesy" of being honest.
"If they had a conversation with me, instead of sneaking around and selling their story ... I would have had a lot more respect for them," Sam told News Corp Australia.
Louise said she didn't reply to a text from her fellow bachelorette asking whether the rumours were true "out of respect".
"I had to come here and see Blake before I spoke to her, it's delicate," she said.
Blake, who insists he'd already told Sam he still had feelings for Louise, added that his mother has received death threats on the internet over the saga.
An edited extract of Blake's five-page letter to Louise:
Dear Louise,
If you are reading this letter, then I must have decided it was right to let you know how I am feeling.
I try never to regret the actions that I have taken in life as each one of them has led me to where I am today and shaped me as the man that you know.
However, here is the absolute truth. In the weeks, days, hours and minutes since I last saw you, not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of you and our time together.
I miss you, but it goes beyond that. As dangerous as this is to admit, I feel I need to admit it - I made a mistake.
I don't want to live a lie for the sake of appearances. I can't take the pain away that I've caused you or undo what I've done, but I can do one thing that you've always respected me for: be honest and genuine.
I need to be true to myself and who I am as a person. It's for that reason that I'm not going to follow through with the engagement.
I realise it's a lot to take in, and at this point I don't know if how I feel about you is still how you feel about me.
You have never ceased to inspire me, even in your absence. What you and I shared was something truly special. I have never felt so natural and comfortable, so right with anyone in my life. Your sincerity, your energy, your beautiful soul, made me feel as though we were always alone together, when we were anything but.
My one wish is that I don't want to just be your first love, I want to be your first, last and only.
Louise, you have my heart, you share my soul and in my mind you are the one for me.
Forever yours,
Blake
* Source: Woman's Day
magazine
) was all rushed and a big mistake on his part, a mess. But I think he is a genuine nice guy who just fell for a few ladies and was mixed up who to choose. I actually have a lot of time for him. I doubt Louise and her family would take him in otherwise. We all make mistakes, just that his mistake was poor judgement and hurt a girl we all grew fond of in a very puplic audience.
He paints himself as such a nice guy in his intro package (and I also saw snippets of him on the Bachelorette: After the Final Rose and he seemed sweet in that series), so I'd like to see how it all changes.
