“It could have been something”: FWAW’s Jason on Beth’s exit and missed chance with Bene
“It didn’t feel good.”
For Jason Tessmann, his biggest worry when joining Farmer Wants A Wife was finding someone willing to embrace the farm life.
The 37-year-old openly spoke about his fears about whether anybody would be willing to relocate to his corner of the world in Coolabunia.
Four days in, his fears were realised in a way he didn’t expect when three women – Jessie, Jessica and Beth – all walked away from FWAW.
Left rattled by their unexpected departures, the dairy farmer found himself battling self-doubt and “what-ifs”.
“It didn’t feel good,” he exclusively tells New Idea.
“I wasn’t expecting, obviously, three women to walk out in the first four days.
“I didn’t really know what to think. Obviously, all the self-doubt came in.
“I know they didn’t leave because of me, but I just wasn’t really expecting that to happen.”
While Jason continues to explore his connections with Poppy and Logan, the exits only showed the harsh clash between reality TV romances and real-world responsibilities.
No doubt, this emotional blow was only made harder by the fact that Jason struggled with the expectation to share his feelings on camera, a concept completely foreign to him.
“I don’t really talk about my feelings multiple times a day,” he says.
“Sure, I started to enjoy [filming] after a while, but it was just something different anyway.”
So, did the sudden departures leave him with any regrets? With hindsight, Jason hints that it could have been a different ending for Bene, who he sent home after the speed dates.
“Obviously, if Jessie knew she wasn’t going to come to the farm, then Bene probably was going to be the next choice to come to the farm,” he says.
“In hindsight, that could have happened, but yeah, just obviously with Jesse deciding right at the last minute to not come to the farm…”
But the most devastating blow to Jason’s farm was Beth. Unlike the others, Beth didn’t want to leave but was pulled back to the real world to support her struggling daughter.
As a father himself, it was something Jason no doubt understood, even if it left him wondering what could have been.
“Things could have turned out differently if she did stay,” he tells us.
“We were getting on so well. Like, I only got to know her for what, five days, I think?
“So, yeah, [there] could have been something there.”
Though Beth’s exit came as a shock to viewers, Jason was far from blindsided by her exit, recalling that she had shared concerns about her daughter with him.
“We got on really well, like on the 24-hour date and everything,” he says.
“She let me know that her daughter was ringing and saying that she missed her and everything.
“And I thought maybe, possibly she might end up leaving for that reason.”
Beth recently told our sister publication TV Week that Jason could have been “the one” if she’d stayed. So does he feel the same?
While Jason reveals they are still in touch, it seems the door might have closed for the pair, with Beth revealing she’s in the “early days” of a new relationship.
Yet the rumour mill still hints that Jason’s quest for love didn’t end when the cameras stopped, with claims circulating of a post-show love story.
“There’s been a lot of DM sliding,” an insider told New Idea, hinting that it isn’t happily ever after for Jason at the end of FWAW.
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While Jason and Beth maintain their contact is strictly friendly chit-chat about parenting, could a second chance for Bene be on the cards?
Having bypassed dating apps to meet Jason on TV, Bene only had positive things to say about the dairy farmer when speaking to New Idea.
“He’s just so authentic and down to earth, and it was sort of everything I was looking for in a man, and to kind of get myself back into dating,” she told us of her decision to apply for the show.
“So, I thought, instead of just downloading the dating apps and swiping through, I’ll go all guns blazing and jump straight on national television.”
So, if the rumours are true, it might be that there’s a happier love story waiting for Jason away from the cameras.