Former Bachelorette Sam Frost's vulnerable interview: 'I hated myself'

Former Bachelorette and Home and Away star Sam Frost has given a tell-all interview to podcast Life Uncut, opening up about her depression and anxiety, and how motherhood has changed her life.

Interviewed by fellow Bachie alum Laura Byrne and Brittany Hockley, Sam's candid interview has been praised online, with the reality TV personality and actress sharing her raw and vulnerable moments and how being in the public eye affected her over the years.

From being rejected by Blake Garvey in 2014, to her own season of The Bachelorette in 2015, and the 2021 COVID controversy which saw people turn on her after she expressed worry about people's mental health during the pandemic as well as the pressure to get vaccinated, Sam's interview left no stone unturned, as she got candid about the public backlash she's faced.

Sam Frost on the COVID controversy and leaving Home and Away: 'The whole thing got twisted'

"That was an awful year. I had a lot of stuff happening in my family life, and a lot of things happening in my private life. It was a really yucky time. I don't think anyone was okay during COVID," Sam said.

"When I did the video about that [COVID vaccinations], if you actually watch the video, it was all about mental health and it was about me saying 'no one is okay right now' and whatever you think about these vaccines, everyone is struggling and you need to be compassionate and have empathy towards people who may think differently towards you," she explained. "And the whole thing got twisted and taken out of context, and got far messier and uglier than what it was meant to be."

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Sam said the fallout to the video was 'ugly' and she felt misunderstood by the anger and vitriol that came her way when all she wanted to do was have a conversation about mental health.

"I just ended up going 'oh man, I need to go home and be with my family' and that's when I made the decision to leave Home and Away," she said.

"The annoying thing is, I'm not an anti-vaxxer, my child is immunised, I'm immunised, all I was talking about was the mental health issues coming out of this.... people were struggling, and the pressure wasn't helping, people were losing their jobs and [being told] you can't earn an income if you don't make this decision."

Sam on 'detaching' from the Bachelor experience: 'I felt humiliated'

"I was really detached from that experience but also at the same time, I did very much experience that. I did experience the humiliation," Sam said.

"I felt really humiliated after The Bachelor, I was like, I had really genuine intentions and someone's manipulated that, and at the time, you think everyone's got your best interests, producers have your best interests, then you realise afterwards, oh I think they played me."

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Sam said after being approached for The Bachelorette, she sat down with the EP of the show and 'cried and cried and cried'.

"I was like this is real for me, this is a real experience you guys see me as a character, as a puppet in your show, I'm like, 'this is so real I want to find someone, I was so humiliated how can I trust you again?'"

The EP reassured Sam she wanted her to put in as much or as little as she could, so Sam stipulated guidelines where she could have off-screen time with the person she chose, with Laura also confirming she got off-screen time with her now-husband Matt during the 2017 season of The Bachelor.

Sam on mental health and why she's so passionate about making a difference

"I've grown up struggling with depression and anxiety and it was conversations that weren't being had when I was a teenager, so I just grew up thinking something was wrong with me, I genuinely thought something was wrong with my brain," Sam shared.

"I felt different, I felt like I didn't belong anywhere, I didn't feel like I had safe people who I trusted, I didn't like being in my body, I hated myself, I hated my brain, I hated the way I looked, I hated my thoughts I hated everything about who I was," Sam said. "My thoughts were so destructive, it was ruining my life."

"When you're feeling like that and you're suffering from depression and you're in this dark black hole you feel like you're a burden to everybody, you feel like you would do the world a favour if you weren't in it and that is a very familiar feeling for me," she continued, tearing up.

"That's why I'm so passionate about talking about mental illness, because there is a bright side, and you do get better."

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