Georgia Love finally speaks out about her recent online scandals: 'Be kinder'

Georgia Love has finally broken her silence following a string of recent online scandals, including her controversial Saudi Arabia post and accusations of racism.

The former Bachelorette, who announced back in February that she had left her TV career at Channel Seven for a job in public relations, has admitted that she struggled to cope with the intense backlash.

“I wasn’t good for quite a while and have been dealing with that ever since,” she told Stellar Magazine.

Georgia went on to say that she believes social media users have become “very angry and unforgiving” through the stress of the pandemic, and that people like her “should be able to say sorry, show they are sorry, and move on”.

“The way the world is at the moment isn’t allowing that to happen,” she continued.

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“If we have a world where nobody is making any mistakes, then show me behind the curtain… because that’s just not possible.

“The past two years have been so hard for so many people, and I think the one thing I’m disappointed with is that people seem to have lost their empathy and understanding of people being humans. Everyone expects everyone to do everything right all the time.”

She also added that people around the world, including herself, “all need to be a bit kinder to each other”.

Saudi Arabia holiday

Georgia Love and her husband Lee Elliot found themselves in hot water earlier this year when they shared photos on Instagram from their holiday in Saudi Arabia.

“After only opening to tourists in 2019, we can't state how excited we are to be among the first Aussies to tour Saudi,” she captioned her now-deleted post, which had tagged the country’s official tourism account.

“To us, it is important to see, experience and learn about all cultures around us and to see how much and how fast our world is changing. We can't wait to bring you along on this incredible experience with us.”

Georgia’s post was quickly met with an onslaught of criticism from fans, who called her decision to travel to the Middle Eastern country “sad and disappointing”.

“We’re really promoting Saudi now? With their appalling human rights record?” one follower commented.

“As a woman and a journalist did you not consider the treatment of both groups in Saudi?” another added. “As a journo I imagine you stand for freedom of the press, freedom of speech - both of which are non-existent in SA”.

Entertainment journalist Peter Ford also weighed in, tweeting a link to a news article revealing that Saudi Arabia had recently ‘executed 81 convicts in a single day’.

“This is the country Georgia Love accepted a free trip to visit,” he wrote online. “Of the 81 you can be sure there is a disproportionate number of women, gays & possibly journalists. Did you really need a freebie trip that badly Georgia?”

Lee ended up sharing a lengthy statement on his Instagram stories defending the trip, insisting that he and Georgia were not being paid for the trip and they “do not in any way endorse behaviours of the past or human rights violations that have occurred in this country”.

“We truly hear and understand what some of you are saying and where you're coming from on our decision to come to Saudi Arabia, but the world is changing for the better and Saudi along with it,” he said.

“Saudi has changed a lot in recent years (we were not allowed here two years ago. Women could not drive nor work - none of these things are the case now).

“We strongly believe by Saudi opening up to the rest of the world and by tourists being here it has to be more accountable.”

Accusations of racism

The holiday to the Middle East came just a few months after Georgia was taken off the air as a TV journalist when she sparked backlash after sharing footage of a cat in the window of an Asian restaurant and wrote, “Shop attendant or lunch?!”

The video was swiftly deleted and Georgia issued an apology for causing “offence”, saying: “I meant absolutely no insinuation about the type of animal nor the type of restaurant, but I see that my post did not come across like that and was offensive.

“I sincerely apologise for the oversight and offence I have caused,” she continued. “Thank you to those who called me out. This is what we need to make sure we are all accountable and do better.

“Again, I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the offence caused.”

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