EXCLUSIVE: Farmer Thomas and Clarette open up about their tumultuous experience on the reality show.

Farmer Wants A Wife’s Thomas and Clarette have opened up about their tumultuous experience on the reality show. Photo: Channel 7

They may have found love on this year’s season of Farmer Wants A Wife, but Farmer Thomas and Clarette’s experience on the reality show was anything but smooth sailing. In addition to the expected tension and jealousy that come with a group of women dating the same man, drama emerged when Thomas was caught sending texts to a former contestant.

Clarette and Thomas managed to work through this and confessed their love for one another in the finale; however, she copped backlash from viewers once the show began airing after being edited as the ‘villain’. The 35-year-old teacher subsequently chose to stay quiet on social media and didn’t do any media interviews about her experience – until now.

Speaking exclusively with Yahoo Lifestyle, one week after the show’s reunion aired on TV, Clarette and Thomas admit they have a few regrets about how they handled themselves in the experience. The biggest one? That they didn’t leave earlier.

“I got an option from my producer to leave early, but then when I was talking to the people higher up, they said there was no option there,” Thomas explains, adding that Tom and Georgie ended up taking that opportunity after the Harvest Festival.

Thomas and Clarette weren’t allowed to leave early because Tom and Georgie took the opportunity before them. Photo: Channel 7

Why didn’t Thomas and Clarette leave early?

Clarette claims that producers told her and Thomas that they wouldn’t be able to leave from that point, which made things “pretty difficult”, and she wishes they had been more forceful with their decision.

“I think we both were guilted into staying because people have jobs and livelihoods, and we thought we were doing the right thing,” she shares. “Looking back now, we just, I guess, wish that we had been a bit selfish and done that, because what ended up happening was Tom had to draw things out longer than it needed to be.

“I think the storyline would have been a lot different if we’d have left so early on. They would have had to show our love story from the beginning.”

Clarette adds that she wanted Thomas to meet the intruders so he could enjoy the full experience, get to know the new women, and ultimately feel content with his decision to choose her.

“These girls had left everything like I had done just a few weeks earlier for the experience, and I guess I didn’t want him to cut his own journey short without giving other people a chance,” she remarks. “I know if I’d been in their position, a new girl arriving to go to the farm, and then be sent home straight away, that would have been hard.

“So we did sit down and talk about it, and agreed to go a bit longer. Looking back, it’s a bit of a regret now, but you can’t change what happened.”

Clarette says she wanted Thomas to meet the intruders to make sure he was content with his decision to choose her. Photo: Channel 7

Would Thomas and Clarette ever return to the show?

While Farmer Wants A Wife has seen plenty of former couples return to the reality show to get engaged or walk down the aisle, Thomas and Clarette admit they’re not too sure if they would do the same.

“They pushed pretty hard this year to try and get me to propose to Clarette at the reunion,” Thomas reveals. “For two weeks, nonstop, they were pushing me, and I was getting pretty fed up with it. I definitely want to marry her one day when the time’s right, but I don’t want to be forced into it.”

Clarette admits it would have been incredible if their love story had been shown in its entirety, but they’re “pretty disappointed” with how they were portrayed on TV.

“They’ve kind of forfeited having a say with us now because of how they’ve shown us,” she says. “So I don’t know, it’s hard to see and say in the future, but where we’re at now and how we feel right now, it’s probably something that we would do not on camera.”