Bachelor in Paradise star, Ciarran Stott, has admitted he should have never done the show due to his toxic relationship with substances.
**CONTENT WARNING: This article contains references to drug and alcohol abuse.**
During an exclusive interview with the So Dramatic! podcast, the 27-year-old told host Megan Pustetto that “looking back on it”, he wishes he “never went on the old Paradise”.
“Everything was blowing up. I was going around Australia, I was partying, I was doing a lot of illegal substances,” he admitted. “I was going a bit crazy and I got caught like a deer in the headlights with all the — as such you’d call it — fame.”
He added: “Getting flown around everywhere, partying and lots of drugs and women. I thought I was a rockstar.”
Plucked from obscurity in Darwin and into the spotlight on Angie Kent’s season of The Bachelorette, Ciarran became an overnight celebrity — something he did not expect, nor know how to handle — admitting that he let the new lifestyle “get to his head”.
“I wasn’t treating myself with any respect, so I definitely wasn’t treating anybody else it either,” he confessed. “So looking back on it, it was a bit stupid for what I was doing. That definitely hurt a lot of people in the making but I’ve looked back on it.”
Ciarran Admitted He Had Been on a Four-Day Bender Before Getting on the Plane to Fiji
Before getting on the plane to Fiji, the personal trainer “partied for three or four days straight”. Then, upon his arrival in Fiji, he slept for 16 to 18 hours, halting production.
“When I got there, they wanted to start shooting all the behind-the-scenes prep stuff before getting to the hotel area where we stayed at Paradise and we had to pause it all because I was an absolute mess,” he recalled.
“I was not in a good space. I was off my head. I was drunk. The chaperone that took me on my flight had to hold my head up when I was sleeping because I was just flopping everywhere on the plane.
“I was not in a good space. I was trying to live like a rockstar like I thought I was.”
When asked by Megan if Ciarran thought production should have even let him on TV, he said: “Probably not.”
“But, you know, they let me sleep it off and gave me a lot of food when I got there.”
Ciarran Stott Says He “Didn’t Get a Bad Edit” On Bachelor in Paradise
While others may like to put their behaviour down to poor editing (ahem, Jamie Doran), Ciarran took full accountability for his actions and admitted that what you saw on-screen was all him.
“I’m not going to sit here and say it was a ‘bad edit’, it was this or it was that. All the actions that I did on Paradise were me,” he said.
While Australia fell in love with the tattooed larrikin on The Bachelorette, things took a turn for the worse when he arrived on the shores of Fiji for Bachelor in Paradise.
The once sweet man, who cried over the death of his grandma, had become manipulative, toxic and frankly, a massive f*ckboy.
“I didn’t watch it but I’ve seen clips of what people have posted on social media and it was absolutely cringe. I can’t believe I was saying some of them things and I can’t believe I was acting the way I was acting.
“I just went on there and thought I was the big man, calling the big shots,” he said.
“I went on there thinking I’m the most ‘loved person in Australia’ right now, I let it get to my head.”
Ciarran Stott Admits That He Didn’t Treat Women with Respect
As for how he treated the women in Paradise: “I don’t act like that, I don’t think about women like that,” he said. “I don’t know what was going through my head.”
However, his time on The Bachelorette painted a different pictured and Ciarran revealed that was when he was most himself.
“I was sweet, I was myself,” he said. “I was chilled. And then as soon as all the so-called fame and what-not got to me, and I was the most loved person in Australia, I used that to my demise really.”
Ciarran Stott Reveals He Does Not “Party” Anymore
Reflecting back on Paradise and the events leading up to it, Ciarran now has a better relationship with not only himself but those around him.
“I let it change me,” he said. “I didn’t stay true to myself, I started acting differently. Even my family could see that I was being distant from them.
“It affected my friends, my family, myself, the relationships that I was in. But now, I do my boxing. PT. I train little kids, I train old women, all in between,” he said.
“And I’ve got my girlfriend in Melbourne and I’m settled, I’m happy and definitely looking back on it, it was a wild, wild time, but now I think I’ve changed for the better.”
If you are in need of resources to help yourself or someone you know with issues relating to alcohol use, please call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800-250-015 for free and confidential advice.
If you are in need of resources to help yourself or someone you know with issues relating to drug use, please visit Reach Out Australia or the Alcohol and Drug Foundation for help, information and resources.
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