Luke Bateman's ex slams his appearance on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here: 'Entertainment value will ALWAYS outweigh red flags'

It appears that Luke Bateman's former flame is less than impressed with his casting on the new season of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! 

Ellie Rolfe, 31, won the former NRL star's heart on the 2023 season of The Bachelor, dubbed The Bachelors.

Despite being the only couple still together at the season finale, their relationship ended just four months later.

Taking to Instagram this week, Ellie blasted her former flame, claiming he had created a persona for the cameras.

'First, I mean are any of them really celebrities?' she began in a not-so-subtle dig at the 2026 cast.

Taking aim at Luke, Ellie continued: 'I'm okay. It is a little triggering who they give airtime to, but I know by now entertainment value will ALWAYS outweigh red flags.

'I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't believe everything you see on TV and on social media.'

Ellie then claimed that Luke had created a persona during their time on The Bachelor.

'People can curate a whole identity for their personal gain/ego. You don't know anyone until you've been in some sort of relationship with them,' she explained.

'Even then you don't know someone, but you know where I'm going with this. Don't put people in the media on a pedestal. You don't know them.'

Ellie doubled down on the sentiment during the most recent episode of the Seriously podcast.

With the benefit of hindsight, Ellie claimed that Luke had set her as a 'project' and proceeded to 'love bomb' his way into her affections.   

'I wasn't aware of it at the time, because I was caught up in that fairy-tale world, and I'm a sucker for that,' she said.

'First date – boom: "I'm going to marry you." And it only got more intense from there. I think I was very naive.  How can you determine that? How can you be so sure of something like a commitment that large without knowing anything about me?'

She added: 'They decide that's their project and weasel their way in by saying all the right things and getting to know all the most vulnerable things about you so early on.'

Ellie said that while in the Bachelor bubble, everything with Luke was 'fine and dandy', and it was only after the cameras stopped rolling that the cracks started to appear. 

'It wasn't until after that I really started to see some traits that were quite alarming. I guess you just kind of get in too deep,' she said.

'It's a little bit like emotional manipulation - it becomes like a trauma bond because you got so close so quickly, had such intense experiences together and the bad and controlling and scary things that happen -  you're still really holding on to the fairytale version.'

While Ellie did not elaborate on her claims, she once again issued a warning to potential reality stars and fans of the genre.    

'I think it's really important for girls who watch reality TV, especially dating shows – it's not reality,' she said.

'People can present themselves any which way and it's just not reality. You just don't know what someone is really like until you've been in a relationship with them. It's really important to not fantasise.'

Luke confirmed his split with Ellie in March 2024, just months after the Bachelor finale.

'Ellie and I have separated and would like to keep our relationship private,' he said in a statement released to Yahoo Lifestyle.

'Ellie has a soul that lights up every room she walks into and I will sorely miss it in my life.' 

It came after fervent speculation among Bachelor fans that the pair had split, with Luke removing all traces of Ellie from his social media in the month leading up to the announcement.

Daily Mail has reached out to Luke Bateman for comment.