When Georgia Love and Lee Elliott announced their split, I actually felt sorry for them.
Nine years together – four married – that’s a golden anniversary for a reality TV couple, considering most barely outlast their contracts.
I’m looking at you, Sophie Monk and Stu Laundy!
Yes, they were corny, but they were happy. When whispers of their split got louder and louder, I imagined how terrible it must feel for everyone to be talking about your break-up before you’ve even found the words to announce it yourself.
When the former Bachelorette finally put out a statement, it was poignant in its simplicity. She and Lee had ‘lovingly parted ways’ back in February this year.
No crying on TikTok (*cough* Tammy Hembrow!) No staged pap shots (*cough* Matt Zukowski). And no posting of cringeworthy memes about how Ikea tables are more stable than the last man you dated (*cough*, yep, I’ve done that!)
Georgia Love and Lee Elliott went for one last coffee together on the day they sold their former marital home in Hampton, Melbourne. They seemed amicable enough, but Georgia’s social media posts suggest to me that she’s trying to downplay their love story and have the last word
Cuddling as they overlooked the New York City skyline, Georgia Love captioned this photo of herself with best friend Abir Ahmed, ‘Who says a soulmate has to be a romantic partner?’
‘You’re right, Georgia. Who does say that?’ asks DailyMail+ columnist Amanda Goff
Instead, it was two coordinated Instagram posts – warm, mature and respectful.
‘Wow,’ I thought to myself at the time, ‘for a woman so fond of Broadway theatrics, this is a refreshingly non-dramatic approach from Georgia Love.’
I spoke too soon.
That newfound respect wouldn’t last. Because, as we’ve seen many times before, bumbling Georgia just couldn’t help herself.
Last week, she popped up on my Instagram feed with a post of her hugging her gay best friend Abir Ahmed. The caption? ‘Who says a soulmate has to be a romantic partner?’
You’re right, Georgia. Who does say that?
You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?
Friendships are a wonderful thing, and there’s nothing wrong with celebrating them. Still, it’s hard to interpret this post as anything besides a thinly veiled swipe at the man who probably considered you his soulmate for the better part of a decade.
I am not throwing shade on gay besties. But are they soulmates? If I called my GBFs Remington and Alain soulmates, they would tell me to grow up and get a boyfriend – or a dog, or a life
Georgia replaced a photo of herself and Lee with a picture of her male best friend. Oh, please
You know, your ex-husband.
Poor Lee. Since the break-up and the sale of the former marital home, he’s been as quiet as a church mouse. A few photos from his sister’s birthday and a recent trip to Singapore are all we’ve seen of him.
He didn’t even comment on tenuous reports linking him to radio star Carrie Bickmore. He must have assumed – quite rightly – that by denying them, he’d only amplify the gossip.
Meanwhile, Georgia seems to have caused a flurry of confusion among her followers, many of whom glossed over the caption entirely and raced to the comments to wrongly speculate that Abir was her ‘new boyfriend’.
How utterly predictable.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not throwing shade on gay besties. I have two beautiful gay men in my best-friend family, Remington and Alain. They’ve held my hair while I was puking in nightclub toilets, told me to get over it when I was sobbing over some bloke, and even sent flowers on Mother’s Day.
Oh, and they always tell me when my roots need doing. Gay men are honest to a fault.
But are they soulmates? If I called them my soulmates, they would tell me to grow up and get a boyfriend – or a dog, or a life.
I adore them, and I wouldn’t have survived a few dramas in my life without them. But let’s not kid ourselves: fun nights out and a bawdy group chat do not equal the intimacy of a marriage.
Marriage is sickness, bills, mortgages, compromise, boredom, good sex, bad sex, no sex, parenting, grief, listening, growing – real life, warts and all.
Your gay best mate? It’s all fun, cocktails, fashion, hysterical laughter and gossip.
Sorry, it’s not the same kind of love.
When you announce that your true ‘soulmate’ is the man you see musicals with – before the ink on your divorce has even dried – it feels less like celebrating friendship, Georgia, and more like a dig.
What you’re really saying, in the most public way possible, is that Lee couldn’t give you what Abir does. That’s not wistful – it’s spiteful.
‘When you announce that your true “soulmate” is the man you see musicals with – before the ink on your divorce has even dried – it feels less like celebrating friendship, Georgia, and more like a dig’
If I were Lee – the man who stood by his wife as she dropped clanger after clanger, all the while worshipping the ground she walked on – how would I feel?
Probably like someone had thrown a sloppy custard pie in my face.
It’s a classic case of going low after a break-up when you really should go high.
There are so many ways you could have captioned your post about the friend who supported you during a tough time. Calling him your ‘soulmate’ was deliberate and, in my view, mean-spirited.
But perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Georgia, you have a habit of putting your foot in it – as Daily Mail readers know all too well.
Remember the cat video? That one where you zoomed in on a cat sitting behind the window of an Asian restaurant. The caption? ‘Shop attendant or lunch?!’
Clang! Crash! Wallop! Despite an apology, you were pulled from on-air duties as a 7News reporter for that.
And in 2018, just two years after appearing on reality TV yourself, you tweeted ‘I don’t understand what’s happened to [her] face’ in reference to a MAFS contestant.
Surely, as a former Bachelorette, you should have known better than to troll.
Still on Twitter, you called the lyrics to Jessica Mauboy’s Eurovision song We Got Love ‘stupid’. The song was inspired, in part, by a school shooting. Awkward.
I could go on, but I have a word count and there are literally too many examples.
And here we are – another clanger to add to Georgia’s trophy wall.
That petty ‘soulmate’ post does the ex-wives club no favours at all. And it isn’t half as empowering as Georgia probably thinks it is.
I found it to be petty and immature. The thing is, the more you try to belittle an ex – particularly one you loved enough to marry – the worse it makes you look.
And I don’t think Georgia Love needs any more help in that department.
Speaking generally, some people will go to great lengths to prove they ‘won’ the divorce. But here’s the thing: the harder you try, the more obvious it is you haven’t.
Women who are thriving after separation don’t throw shade at their exes by raving about their gay soulmates. They just get on with their lives. Some – I’m looking at you, Monique Blackwell – throw a divorce party with their handsome new boyfriend as the guest of honour. After all, isn’t happiness the best revenge?
Look Georgia – I hate to say it but you’ve done yourself zero favours here.
No one’s denying your right to have a supportive best friend. Most women do. But to declare him your soulmate just months after your divorce to TV’s Mr Nice Guy? Yuck.
What you’ve done is prove – once again – that you are your own worst enemy.
Here’s some free advice from me: Next time you’re having a wonderful time with your best friends, just… enjoy it. Cherish it. You can even post a few pics if you like.
Then, when it’s time to tap out your little caption, do not make a sly reference to your ex. All it does is tell the world he’s still living rent-free in your head.
