'It completely messed with me': The awful trick Matt and Bachelor producers played on Abbie

When Bachelor Australia ‘villain’ Abbie Chatfield was spectacularly dumped by Matt Agnew on national television in Thursday night’s emotional finale, something unusual happened.

Viewers, who had until then criticised the 23-year-old property analyst for being everything from manipulative to mean and raunchy, suddenly changed their tune.

The moment the astrophysicist, 32, revealed to Abbie that his ‘heart belonged with someone else’ - chemical engineer Chelsie McLeod - an outpouring of sympathy and support for the fiesty Gemini began online.

Many, including Aussie comedian Dave ‘Hughesy’ Hughes, took to social media to slam Matt for making Abbie believe that she was ‘the one.’

And now, in an exclusive chat with Yahoo Lifestyle, Abbie reveals that yes, she trusted that she’d be standing next to Matt in the finale, largely because of his behaviour when the cameras stopped rolling.

Abbie ‘led on’ by Matt and producers

“Our date was actually the day before the finale, it was the opposite order of how it was shown [in the episode],” Abbies reveals.

“So I was with him at 11, 10 [pm] the night before”, she says, adding that Matt gave her no reason to expect he wouldn’t choose her.

“He was completely fine with me, he didn’t back off at all,” she explains.

“We were kissing off-camera, we were having cute moments off-camera, he was being his normal self,” she goes on.

Not only that, but the crew behind the scenes also led her to believe that she had it in the bag.

“All of the crew were like, ‘you’ve got it,’ not just the producers but like everyone, and everyone was like, ‘he’s obsessed with you,’” she says.

‘It messed with me’

Twelve hours later, Matt had seemingly changed his tune, choosing Chelsie, 28, instead.

“I did feel a little bit led on and that’s why I said to [Matt] ‘you shouldn’t have done that off-camera last night... because talking to me off-camera completely messed with me’,” Abbie reveals.

“Like if he hadn’t have spoken to me I would’ve been like, ‘cool, I know’,” she adds.

“And the on-camera stuff, like, I understand how the show works but the off-camera stuff made me pretty upset,” she says.

Abbie and Matt’s awkward run-in

Abbie recalls how the ex-lovers unexpectedly crossed paths for the first time since the finale at Nova studios in Sydney just this morning.

“I saw him this morning and had a big cry in the hallway,” she reveals.

Matt and Chelsie were on-site to chat with Fitzy & Wippa while Abbie was recording with Smallzy in the studio next door. The two rooms are separated by a glass wall.

“I was doing an interview with Smallzy and I turned and he said, ‘oh [Matt and Chelsie] are just behind you there,’ and I could see them in the adjacent studio,” she explains.

“I crouched down and had a big cry in the hallway”.

“I haven’t spoken to him at all and I would love to have a conversation with him but I just don’t think that’s going to happen,” she says.

For his part, Chelsie revealed to Fitzy & Wippa that Matt “bolted” when he spotted his ex.

Are Abbie and Chelsie friends?

Abbie, however, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she remains friends with the woman Matt chose over her, Chelsie McLeod.

But navigating their relationship is tricky considering their shared past.

“It’s been difficult, I guess we don’t talk about Matt, we talk about other things, we talk about the show, we don’t talk about Matt specifically,” Abbie explains.

“It’s hard for me, and it’s hard for her and I don’t want to bring it up with her because I don’t want it to seem like I’m prying or trying to get her to remember what Matt and I had”.

“But I’m sure now that everything’s out in the open [Chelsie and I] can have a much better relationship,” she adds.

Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com

Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Or sign up to our daily newsletter here.