Richie and Alex shut down split rumours with 'I love you' balloons

The Bachelor’s Richie Strahan got a very warm welcome from his girlfriend Alex Nation yesterday when he touched down in her hometown of Melbourne.

After the three and a half hour journey from his native Perth, Alex was waiting for her man armed with a bunch of red and white heart-shaped balloons emblazoned with the words “I Love You” and “To My Boyfriend”.

Recording the moment, Alex, 25, took a photo of her 32-year-old boyfriend and his balloons, and uploaded it to his Snapchat.

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Alex also posted a pic of Richie with her thoughtful gifts on Instagram this morning and captioned it: “Picked up this cutie yesterday,” complete with a balloon and heart emoji.

Her romantic gesture comes on the back of a raft of reports claiming The Bachelor love birds are on the verge of a breakup.

Meanwhile, the rope technician still hasn’t met Alex’s other love - her five-year-old son, Elijah, but maybe this trip is the one!

While the little fella and Richie have conversed over FaceTime, Richie recently explained to The Daily Telegraph the reason he hasn't met Elijah yet is because the pair are waiting for the right moment for them to be introduced face-to-face.

“We want to do it in the right way in our own time so it is something that we are working on," Richie said.

Alex recently received some criticism from her ex husband Joel Porter’s girlfriend, Ashy Smith, who alluded via Instagram posts that Alex had been “neglecting” Elijah, despite what the single mother’s pictures on social media show.

“Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being,” one of Ashy's posts read.

The model hit back at the accusations and told the media: “My little boy is everything to me.”

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