Clarette opens up about her ‘soul destroying’ edit on the reality show.

Farmer Wants A Wife’s Clarette and Farmer Thomas open up about the show’s ‘crazy’ editing. Photos: Instagram/clarette.annalisa / Channel 7

From the tense music to the constant shots of her not smiling, it’s clear that Clarette received the ‘villain edit’ on this year’s season of Farmer Wants A Wife. While she stayed quiet on social media as the season aired on TV and didn’t do any media interviews discussing her on-screen portrayal, the 35-year-old teacher is finally speaking out alongside her partner, Farmer Thomas.

The couple, who are now living together in South Australia, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that they had “no idea” their love story would be portrayed as dramatically as it was until they began watching the series. Looking back, however, they can see that the show’s producers “played mind games” to make them say and do whatever they wanted.

“The producers are very good at rewording questions to get you to give a certain answer, and they’ll keep probing until they get there,” Clarette shares. “And in the end, I think we both were just giving them whatever because we were just so over it that we just wanted it to end.”

Thomas adds that he knew early on that he would pick Clarette, so the producers had to give him lines to say about the other women to keep things interesting for the viewers.

“In my voxies, everything was about Clarette. They were like, ‘Are you going to talk about the other girls?’ and I’m like, ‘Well, Clarette’s the only one on my mind’,” he recalls. “So they’d tell me positives to say about the other ladies, and I’d pretty much just say what they had to say. I was pretty fed up with filming by the end of it.”

Thomas and Clarette claim that the producers ‘played mind games’ during filming. Photo: Channel 7

Examples of ‘crazy’ editing

Clarette and Thomas share that they would love for Australia to see the raw footage of their Farmer Wants A Wife experience because they would have “a very different view” without the producers’ “crazy” editing.

“There was one example where they asked me a question, ‘What have you come on here for?’, and I said, ‘I’ve come on here for love. I’m not here just to make friends. Obviously, that’s an amazing byproduct of the experience, but not my priority’,” she details. “They just cut it to say, ‘I’m not here to make friends’.

“All my questions were focused on the other girls, and I would always say positive things, but then they would always say, ‘Hypothetically, though, what would you do in this situation?’. So I’m like, ‘Hypothetically, of course, I’d be jealous, of course I’d be upset. Why wouldn’t I be?’. And obviously they’ve just used those bits and have not used the full sentence.”

Thomas also shares that the producers would ask him questions that had nothing to do with the show so they could “manipulate” his answers and use them in a completely different context.

“There was one question they asked me, ‘How did you feel after your last relationship ended?’, and I said, ‘That’s probably the worst I’ve ever felt’. And I saw they used that when Claire left, they used that snippet,” he remarks. “I wish they had to show the actual question they asked with the response I gave.”

Thomas says the show’s editors made it sound like he was talking about Claire when he was talking about his ex. Photos: Channel 7

How Clarette dealt with the backlash

Clarette admits being portrayed as the show’s ‘villain’ has been “soul destroying”, and she had to rely on Thomas’ support to cope with the backlash.

“We went through some really difficult times where I didn’t think I’d be able to get through it,” she admits. “Tom is my main support person out here, and my friends are back in Sydney and overseas. It really tested us as a couple, and it was really difficult. I’ve never experienced hate like that before in my life.”

She adds, however, that she and Thomas are stronger than they’ve ever been, and they’re looking forward to getting back to reality.

“We’ve always said, if we can get through all of this, we can hopefully get through anything,” she says. “It’s really tested us, but I feel like we’re pretty much unbreakable now, and we got what we wanted from it. Watch this space, we’re excited for our future together!”