Abbie Chatfield Sued by Male ‘Best Friend’ Over Instagram Story Amid Controversial Comments

Abbie Chatfield is being sued for defamation by her one-time ‘male best friend’ over an Instagram story published to her 600,000 Instagram followers.

The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that a lawsuit has been filed against the 30-year-old former Bachelor star and outspoken activist in the Federal Court of Australia by Heath Kelley. 

Six years ago, Kelley and Chatfield found themselves at the centre of romance rumours. The pair were seen dancing together in a raunchy online video where Chatfield grinded up against Kelly and said ‘I love this song and I love this man.’

Chatfield, who had recently become a celebrity by starring on Channel Ten’s The Bachelor, was quick to publicly deny they were an item, describing Kelley as ‘my best friend of ten years.’ 

However in May of this year, Chatfield is believed to have posted an Instagram story  containing allegedly defamatory remarks about Mr Kelley, a former Virgin Australia guest services officer and law student. 

What Chatfield precisely said in the post – which expired after 24 hours – is yet to be revealed in court.

Former Bachelorette turned outspoken activist Abbie Chatfield is being sued for defamation by a onetime ‘best friend’ over an Instagram reel she posted to her almost 600,000 followers

Abbie Chatfield and Heath Kelley – dancing in 2019, when she posted ‘I love this song and I love this man’ sparking false romance speculation – will now meet in court after he launched a defamation suit against her

The case was first filed in September at the Federal Court’s NSW registry and is yet to have its initial directions hearing. Chatfield is yet to offer a defence and has no legal representatives listed on the court’s website. 

Since her time on the Bachelor, Chatfield, 30, has gone on to appear in spin-off series Bachelor in Paradise Australia, plus I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! She also hosted Love Island Afterparty Australia and been a panellist on The Masked Singer.

Chatfield has recently drawn criticism for her outspoken left-wing political views and incendiary social media posts, including remarks about abortion and the death of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Showing off an outfit last weekend, Chatfield posted a video with a soundtrack which said: ‘I love abortions, and trans people, and migrants, and birth control, and immigrants, and gay people, and having fun, and just being a nice and overall good person’.

Rising to prominence after appearing on The Bachelor in 2019, Abbie Chatfield is a now a media personality but has become a political activist of late with comments about Charlie Kirk, abortion and the March for Australia rallies

Chatfield was slammed online for the abortion comment, but doubled down, saying she ‘loves abortion’ because ‘it literally saves the lives of pregnant people’.

‘If there is a pregnancy that is not medically viable and a woman is going to die without an abortion, that means the abortion she receives saves her life,’ she said, in a lengthy explanation that did not stem the flow of criticism.

Immediately following conservative American activist Charlie Kirk’s shooting death on September 10 in Utah, Chatfield posted that she hated him.

‘Even tho I hate Charlie Kirk this is bad for everyone,’ Chatfield posted. ‘The right (and possibly the left) will become more violent in replacement of actual democracy, he will be martyred …’

A court date for the defamation case brought by Mr Kelley against Chatfield has not yet been set.