As leading man Matty Johnson puts the contestants through their paces they have to wait patiently until called, look their best, put up with having their “heart” and character dissected on television, and if they don’t measure up they get dumped.

When the Mercury interviewed Byrne early on in the season we raised the suggestion the show is inherently disempowering – the women have to make themselves perfect while the man swans around and is automatically desirable. But Byrne, who identifies herself as a feminist, was having none of it.

“I really disagree with that,” she said.

“To be honest I probably used to have a bit of a negative view of the Bachelor before actually doing it.

“For starters there is a Bachelorette, where a woman gets to choose between men as well. And the reality is, as a woman, I have the choice of doing so. No-one made me do it; no-one made me stay.

“The fact that I had the choice the whole time, also put me in a position of power. I could have left at any time had I wanted to, but I wanted to be there.

“So I think to say that I’m there having to be perfect … I certainly wasn’t perfect the whole time. I wanted to present myself as genuine to myself as possible. Which means there were times when I wasn’t this absolute perfect version of myself – you can’t maintain that for three months. You have to be yourself.”

This week Laura felt the blowtorch as Matty insisted she was not allowing herself to be “vulnerable” and wasn’t “opening up” to him. It was a tougher week for the former St Marys student, who had swept Matty off his feet on two amorous solo dates.

Laura is the last of three Wollongong contestants remaining and has been the favourite to win the show for several weeks.

And while fellow Illawarra product Jen Hawke has said she knows who wins the show, it remains to be seen.