Shocking truth behind Matt and Chelsie's split

Australia wept last week as star-crossed scientists Chelsie McLeod and Matt Agnew announced their split after a short-lived six-month romance.

It turns out, however, that the split may not have been as natural as drifting apart, as the pair’s respective social media posts indicated.

Explosive new claims by an anonymous source from New Idea have emerged, and it looks like Matt may have been biding his time because of a tricky clause in his contract.

The source claims Matt wanted to pull a Honey Badger and opt-out of picking a woman at the finale, but the contract he signed with the network locked him into choosing a winner, and producers made him hold off until The Bachelorette finale went to air before walking away.

“He wanted to choose no one, but obviously it was in his contract that he had to choose someone, so producers pushed him to pick Chelsie because she was the safe bet,” the source claimed, adding he couldn’t break it off until Angie Kent’s season was done for fear of ratings being affected.

“...He was made to keep the act up and do the required media rounds with Chelsie until Angie’s season had finished airing,” the source was quoted.

Channel 10, Matt and Chelsie have been contacted for comment.

The theory would explain the bizarre photo of Matt holidaying in Scotland sans Chelsie that emerged days before the finale and raised eyebrows back in September.

At the time, former contestant Helena shut down the rumours, confirming that to the best of her knowledge the hunky Bachelor was still in the country.

Is there more to the story?

More shocking still was a comment Chelsie made on former co-star Jessica Brody’s Instagram post which would seem to indicate some miscommunication between the pair.

Jessica uploaded two snaps to Instagram holding a red rose.

In the caption, she wrote, “Me vs. Me when he tells me I’m the only girl he’s talking to.”

The cheeky caption could just refer to the show’s format of one bachelor dating dozens of hopefuls, but a comment from Chelsie raised some eyebrows.

“Triggered,” she wrote on the post two days ago, and later clarified, “triggered is an understatement tbf (to be frank)”.

It seems the reality star is hinting at a far more rocky ending than first thought in more ways than one.

‘Amicable’ breakup

The latest rumours belie the mutually respectful attitude the pair displayed initially when the news broke.

“Our relationship hasn't translated from filming to the real, everyday world as we had hoped,” Matt told followers on November 17.

In her own emotional post, Chelsie echoed Matt’s amicable sentiment, telling followers he “showed me what it was like to be respected in a relationship and I am so thankful for that.”

However, in the days since a few more tidbits from the Chelsie indicate the latest rumours might not be too far off the mark.

Cryptic messages

Just days after her initial post, newly-single Chelsie took to Instagram to share a cryptic message that appeared to allude to ‘bad’ times with her former beau.

The chemical engineer posted a photo of herself along with fellow contestants Nichole Wood, Sogand Mohtat and Helena Sauzier after a skydiving session on the reality TV show on Thursday.

The blonde beauty captioned the smiley snap, “Take the good with the bad,” which seems to suggest that her Bachelor experience was mixed.

Similarly, Monday saw the blonde beauty and brains post another cryptic message, captioning a sultry snap, ‘what is life?’.

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