Farmer Jarrad doesn’t waste any time. In one emotional night on Farmer Wants A Wife, the show’s youngest farmer sends home two of his ladies. Has he found the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with?
Jarrad, who also has a career as a country music singer, tells TV WEEK that he’s “pretty headstrong”.
“When I know I want something, I know I want something,” he says.
“I would have much preferred to get through the whole thing quicker than drag it out for the sake of dragging it out. If you know who you’re going to pick anyway, there’s no point dragging all the other girls along. That’s just unfair.”
This week’s first episode sees Jarrad take his four remaining ladies – Ash, Bri, Chloe and Lucy – to meet country music legend James Blundell. Jarrad lives and works on James’ property near Stanthorpe in Queensland, and the two have been close friends for several years.
“I think he saw enough of himself in me, or myself in him, to know that I needed help,” Jarrad explains. “He took me in and he’s been very much a mentor for me.”
Jarrad got advice from James while he was filming Farmer Wants A Wife.
“I think James really knows me and has insight into what type of woman I need to have in my life,” he says.
“We had plenty of conversations, almost every single day, off camera.”
As the ladies wait to see who Jarrad will send home next, there’s nervousness. Queensland bartender Chloe, who went on the first 24-hour date with the young farmer, is worried that their initial connection is fading.
The ladies don’t have long to wait,
with an emotional Jarrad saying goodbye to one of them, quickly followed by
a second. He says sending home two women was “the right decision”, but
one of the hardest choices he’d ever
had to make.
“It wasn’t nice. Essentially, what you’re doing the whole time is just breaking girls’ hearts.”
Jarrad has been one of the show’s most talked-about farmers from the beginning. Just 22, he’s had people question why he wants to settle down at such a young age.
“I was in a relationship a few years ago, when I started saving for a ring,” he explains. “I come from a family where a lot of us get married very, very young.”
Other viewers have wondered why he’s not appearing on a show like Australian Idol or The Voice.
“I thought about it a little bit, but not really too much,” he says. “I don’t know if I’d go well on any of those shows, being told what I can and can’t sing.”
There’s also the lingering question
of whether Jarrad ever found out whether or not he and Bri are related, – Bri’s surname, Page, is the same as his mother’s, and they both have ties
to Coffs Harbour.
“We’re totally not related,” he says with a relieved laugh.
“She comes from the New Zealand book of Pages and I come from the Australian one!”
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