Their off-screen relationship has blossomed, according to Instagram posts. Now the pair say it has ‘ripened into something bolder’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Two contestants on the Australian Bachelor reality television show have apparently found love – with each other.

Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon met while competing for the attention of Richie Strahan in season four of The Bachelor, which broadcast in Australia from July to September this year.

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Their close relationship – as documented on Instagram by an apparently professional and ever-present photographer – had been the source of much speculation among fans.

That seemed to be put to rest with Marx’s Instagram post marking Scanlon’s 30th birthday on Monday, in which she said their friendship had “ripened into something bolder”.

“I met Tiffany in a very strange situation. Well … we were kind of dating the same guy. And it was filmed and put on TV 😂.

“From that first cocktail party, it was like this instant calibration between souls, as if we had known each other once before. Friendship ripened into something bolder … Happy birthday Tiffany. I love you.”

Scanlon, in turn, said: “Meeting Megan this year felt like destiny.”

Neither woman has come out as lesbian or bisexual, and they have not labelled their very public relationship. But Marx has called Scanlon her “love”, “baby” and other terms of endearment on Instagram since September.

The ambiguity has only bolstered their followings on the platform, with photos of the two of them drawing thousands of likes and tens of comments along the lines of “#RelationshipGoals”.

Scanlon has called Marx her “favourite human”. “Experiment. Explore. Experience. Evolve. Don’t simply Exist,” she captioned an Instagram post of the pair this month.

The women have also appeared in lingerie shoots together, as legitimate couples do.

Marx, a health promotions officer from Western Australia, said she had applied to be a contestant on The Bachelor on a Friday night when her friends “were having nights in with their boyfriends”.



Scanlon, a training administrator also from WA, said she wanted to be a part of the show because “a good man is hard to find, well, it has been for me”. She was eliminated in the second week.

Marx went on to cause an upset when she rejected the titular bachelor’s proffered rose, pleading: “I just can’t fall in love in such competition and intensity.”



She later told News Corp the “cameras everywhere all the time” were off-putting.

“I got along with Richie really well, we had great banter … but for me, it was more the environment of the show that wasn’t very conducive to love,” she added.

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The possibility of a romance with Scanlon was flagged shortly after she left the competition, when a photograph posted to Instagram showed them both topless and sharing a bowl of spaghetti.

“I think you can probably tell from the pictures that have been posted that we don’t have the most conventional relationship,” Marx told OK! magazine in September, which reported that she “[did not] deny that the pair were an item” when asked.



“I think that when it comes to attraction, for me, it’s usually a connection of minds and humour before anything else and I’m traditionally attracted to men but I don’t rule anything out …

“I would say Tiff’s in the same boat.”