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Abbie Chatfield is being sued for defamation by her one-time ‘male best friend’ because she falsely suggested he supported genocide and the slaughter of children to her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.
The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal details of the lawsuit brought by Heath Kelley against the one-time Bachelor star and outspoken activist, 30, in the Federal Court of Australia.
It is understood that Kelley, a law student and former Virgin Australia guest services officer, had privately messaged Chatfield in May to say that he was ‘pro-Israel’ because of its support for gay and women’s rights.
That statement was what allegedly prompted her to shame Kelley – who is no celebrity – in the most public of ways.
The Daily Mail revealed on Thursday that Kelley had filed a defamation lawsuit against Chatfield in September.
Since the news broke, Chatfield’s only response to the lawsuit has been a complaint about the Mail describing her controversies as ‘woes’.
Abbie Chatfield is being sued for defamation by her one-time ‘male best friend’ because she falsely suggested he supported genocide and the slaughter of children, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal (the Bachelor star is pictured in September 2024)
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
Chatfield and Kelley were once so close their relationship sparked romance rumours.
The pair made tabloid headlines in 2019 when they danced together in a raunchy online video. In it, 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, that relationship has now clearly soured.
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’.
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…’
Since her time on the Bachelor, Chatfield 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.
A court date for the defamation case brought by Mr Kelley against Chatfield has not yet been set.
