Bachelorette's Courtney: 'Neither of us wanted it to end'

Courtney Dober was perceived as being that guy who just wasn't as into Georgia Love as she was into him on The Bachelorette.

But now, the 30-year-old tells Be that there's more to that story than meets the eye. In fact, he thinks if he'd have met Georgia in a real life setting they'd probably still be together. Aww!

“We had an incredible connection and I absolutely liked her a lot," Courtney tells Be. “I’m sorry to the viewers if they didn’t get to see that side.

"But the connection we had was very much real and I suppose neither of us really wanted it to end."

He adds: “But unfortunately in the situation that we were, it was getting down to the nitty gritty."

A few months have passed now since Courtney was given his marching orders by Georgia. And now, he admits he probably wasn't cut out for the show's main theme - to fall in love quickly.

“I’ve learnt that I’m the kind of person that needs more than three dates to fall in love,” he explains. “If I would have known that, I probably wouldn’t have applied for the show because I have come off looking like a bit of an idiot.”

But the industrial designer adds he did have stronger feelings for the Bachelorette than what we saw on the show.

“To be honest, home dates for me was my third date that I’d had with Georgia," he tells. "So, you know, it is dating at speed and the feelings I had for Georgia were the fastest level of feelings that I’ve ever had for anyone.

“But to sit there and honestly look her in the eyes and tell her that I loved her and that I could love her by next week, it just wasn’t something that I was willing to say.

“It wasn’t the truth and I wanted to be completely honest with her...Unfortunately the situation we were in was the Achilles’ heel and that’s what was our undoing."

Courtney agrees that there were public misconceptions about how deep his feelings were for the Tassie-based journo.

“I was very into Georgia,” he says. “I said this to Georgia as well.

RELATED: Exclusive: The truth behind Lee’s love child scandal
RELATED: The Bachelorette's Lee bullied for his looks in high school

“Just because she’s the Bachelorette and there’s 16 of us and she has to choose one of us, doesn’t mean they’re all going to fall in love or even like with the person who is ‘The Bachelorette’.

“So I was very much treating the whole situation like the real world and if I didn’t have a connection with her on the first date, I wouldn’t have stayed around.

“If I knew that wasn’t going to happen, you know, I would have left.”

As for those misconceptions, which were passionately expressed by viewers on social media, Courtney says he's a little bit scared to see the meaner tweets.

“I’m scared to look at them,” he says. “In the last couple of episodes I’ve looked at a couple and it’s interesting to see how much time and emotion people invest in this show – there are some seriously hardcore fans out there.

“Everyone has a view and wants to see a happily ever after, they want to see a fairytale, to see every single person on their screen falling in love and professing their love for the Bachelorette.

“It’s not realistic. When you’re in that situation and you’re legitimately trying to build a real relationship with someone, that’s real…I took it very seriously.”

Well, unfortunately that ship has sailed and it sounds like Georgia has already found love with one of the remaining Bachelors. So how long until Courtney counts his losses and puts himself back out there?

“I don’t think you can put a time limit on these things,” he says. “But I’m going to catch up with some friends tonight and have a beer in a very casual environment.

“I’m not going out looking for girls by any means, but a good time [to start dating again] is probably after the show finishes.”

You heard it here first, ladies - Courtney will be available as of next week. In the meantime, The Bachelorette continues next Wednesday and Thursday on Network Ten.

Want more celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle news? Follow Be on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram