Lisa Wilkinson: Like Many Guys, I Guess The Bachelor Was Just Afraid Of The C-Word

My interview with the “Honey Badger”, Nick Cummins? The guy Australia is so keen to love to hate right now?

I’ll get to it, I promise. But first, some perspective.

For isn’t it true that most of us who’ve been around the block a few times, have dated him? That guy, I mean. Not Cummins himself, but the one that despite your best instincts, you just can’t help falling for. The one your girlfriends all warned you probably had commitment issues?

You know you’re not the only one who is feeling that way about him either. Because you just know there has to be others out there just as giddy, just as taken with all his immense and mesmerising charms, just as convinced that he is “the one”.

And as heartbreaking as it is to discover that -- GODDAMMIT -- your instincts and your girlfriends were right -- AGAIN -- and you never should have given even a little of your heart in the first place as he soon enough chooses someone else anyway ... in hindsight there is at least one bonus.

At least this wasn’t playing out on national television.

At least you never had to face the crushing humiliation of having your heart broken while eight different cameras rolled to capture every tear-stained red-faced moment as you come back down to earth.

Some guys are just afraid of the “C” word, right, and . . ?

And here comes Nick Cummins now.

I sat down with him just a few days before the finale went to air, and as he walks in, all curly-haired, buff-bodied Aussie bloke, I can see why he prospered so mightily as the latest incarnation of The Bachelor.

This is the quirky, charismatic guy viewers fell in love with just weeks ago, and who is now just days away from discovering that -- whether he likes it or not -- has come to represent every commitment-phobic bloke we girls have ever met.

And just to prove that even he knows he is about to be a wanted man -– in an entirely different way from that which he is possibly used to – this “Bachelor” is just about to hop a plane to disappear into the paparazzi-free wilds of Papua New Guinea.

The trouble with Nick Cummins (and every bloke you’ve ever kicked yourself for falling for) is, he seems like such a nice guy. He’s hard NOT to like. The kind your brother would love to have a beer with. The kind who makes you feel like you’re the only girl in the room ... even when there’s 27 others in high heels and low cut dresses watching on.

The kind, when you meet his family, yet another box gets ticked. The kind you know would, at the first sign of danger -- emotional or physical -- just wrap you up in those big strong arms and carry you to whichever safe harbour your heart desires. (Even though you know that with time, you are more than capable of getting to that harbour on your own.)

But after Thursday’s Bachelor finale, when Cummins decided to go for the Australian record for hearts broken in the shortest amount of time -- count them, 28 in just eight weeks -- if social media is anything to go by, Nick Cummins is now the most hated guy in Australia.

Yup, right now, he is the one who reminds so many Australian women of the attractive fellow they loved and lost.

So what did he have to say for himself? Is he just the worst kind of commitment phobe? Did he go into this for the wrong reasons?

In not choosing anyone, was he genuinely trying not to cause further hurt down the track with an even more humiliating public breakup after what would have been months of hand-holding and trying to keep up appearances?

Did he decide to go home alone because even with 28 women who, according to the matchmaking experts behind the scenes on the show, covered every possible quality Nick said he wanted in a woman, you just can’t manufacture that unmistakable, secret, inexplicable chemistry that goes with finding “the one”?

Or was this just a guy on a brand-building exercise, and the girls’ emotions be damned?

Find out on The Sunday Project in Nick Cummins’ only interview at 6.30pm on Sunday on Network Ten.

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