Bachelor stars take brutal swipes at 'villain' Tash after shock return

She was arguably the most controversial contestant on this year’s season of The Bachelors, and on Wednesday night Tash Candyce made a surprise return to the show.

The 31-year-old, who dramatically walked away from the Channel 10 program alongside two other contestants earlier in the week, shocked fans when she showed up at the Bach Pad in the hopes of winning Bachelor Jed McIntosh’s heart.

“I’m back b**ches! Did you miss me?” she said in her confessional.

“I’m here to speak to Jed. I found myself missing him when I was at home. I want to surprise him. I want Jed back, and when I want something I get it.”

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While viewers will have to wait until Sunday night’s episode to see her conversation with Jed and find out if she is allowed to return to the mansion, former Bachelor star Florence Alexandra tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she believes Tash only came back to the show because she “wants to win”.

“I highly doubt Jed is the love of her life,” she shares. “I think production asked her if she wanted to come back. Maybe she asked to come back, or maybe they asked her to come back.

“I know they asked me when I left [Bachelor in Paradise] if I wanted to come back, but that was a different situation. I got eliminated in Fiji and they asked me, ‘Do you want to come back?’. And that was pretty spontaneous because I had already flown back to Melbourne so I had to catch another flight, it’s not like I was waiting around the corner. But in this scenario, I think she may have asked.”

'I don't think she's an iconic villain'

Florence went on to say that she doesn’t think Tash, who was previously cast on Married At First Sight in 2019 before pulling out at the last minute, is on The Bachelors “for the right reasons”.

“But it depends on what the right reasons are,” she continues. “I think she was just like, ‘Sign me up buttercup’ and she thought it was funny.

“In the very first episode we saw her thinking she was going to meet Felix [Von Hofe] and she was very excited about that, and then she met Jed and now she's all in on Jed because she knows that's her safest bet - that's her only bet. She just wants to win The Bachelor, but I wonder if she realises that she's a villain.”

Florence adds that compared to previous ‘villains’ in the franchise, Tash is nowhere near as “iconic”.

“We've had some iconic villains,” she says. “I don't think she's an iconic villain, just because it's mainly petty girl drama. I do think she would be a pain in the a** to live with if she doesn't like you, but is she an iconic villain? Probably not.”

'Pretty good TV'

Florence’s comments come shortly after fellow Bachelor alum Jake Ellis told Yahoo Lifestyle about his past encounters with Tash.

Tash was previously engaged to Michael Turnbull, who found fame on Sam Frost’s season of The Bachelorette in 2015 and appeared on the same season of Bachelor in Paradise as both Florence and Jake, before calling things off in February 2019.

“I met Tash a few times when she was dating Michael after Paradise, which was interesting,” Jake recalls.

“What you're seeing on TV is one hundred per cent what she’s like, I think. When I saw her face pop up I was like, ‘Yeah wow this will be interesting’, which it no doubt has been.

“From what I know of Tash and when I met her, I think she's just wanted to be on a reality TV show for five years. So she's finally got there. But in saying that, it is making for pretty good TV - to an extent. I think she's just read the ‘How to be the villain on The Bachelor' handbook, and she's just playing it to a tee so she's getting a lot of airtime. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few episodes.”

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