Mackane (Mack) Reid.
Camera IconMackane (Mack) Reid. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Mack’s Perth dating disasters before meeting The Bachelorette Sophie Monk

Sara FitzpatrickEastern Reporter

SELF-CONFESSED extrovert Mackane (Mack) Reid, who made his mark on The Bachelorette when he serenaded Sophie Monk with his You and Me ditty, has enjoyed many first dates, even the bad ones.

A memorable rendezvous two years ago – which he admits was terrible but makes a great story – involved cigarettes, hamburgers, Whitney Houston and a good dose of fear.

The Perth small business owner encountered the woman online and proceeded to meet her at Grill’d.

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“She’s already half an hour late – time management is not my forte so that can be forgiven – but I walked out the front of Grill’d and she was there sucking on a durry. I thought: ‘You’re half an hour late, surely you could have just waited to suck a durry, but anyway, all good’,” Reid said.

“So we met – she looked nothing like she did in the photos – and went to order some burgers. She ordered a vegetarian option and started to berate me for eating meat and tell me how bad the industry was and so I said: ‘How about the tobacco industry?’. So we weren’t getting along.

“For some reason she invited me back to her house and I don’t know why I went but I got there and she gave me a rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. It was terrible and she was so invested in the singing that she didn’t realise I was laughing under my breath.

“After that I said ‘I have to go’ and she pinned me up against the wall and tried to kiss me. I had to forcefully push her away – it was the first time on a date that I was actually a little frightened and then all night and for the next two days she was calling until my roommate asked to her stop.”

Reid, who aspires to be a TV host, was undeterred by the experience and when the opportunity to meet long-time crush Monk came along, he jumped in.

“I remember seeing Sophie in a bikini coming out of a pool in Date Movie and thought: ‘Oh my goodness – she’s tall, slender, blonde, blue-eyed: all the features I’m overwhelmed by’,” he said.

“She had a certain presence about her that unsettled me to start with (on the show) but then I got used to speaking to her and being close to her and after a couple of weeks we really started to gel.”

Reid’s mum disapproved of him entering the mansion.

“Mum didn’t want me to make a fool of myself on a national scale, which unfortunately is exactly what I did by playing Sophie a song on national television,” he said.

“It was the most nerve-racking experience of my life – I really struggled with it and probably gave the worst performance of my life.”

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