In the three years since her turn as the “villain” of The Bachelor’s seventh season, Abbie Chatfield has established herself as a radio and TV presenter, podcaster, brand ambassador, entrepreneur, and all-round champion for young women.
As one incredulous follower asked when the 27-year-old announced she’d started a clothing label: “Woman, where do you find the time?”
It was a valid question – unlike most reality TV contestants, who try, and ultimately fail, to prolong their 15 minutes of fame, Chatfield has become a bona fide star, and one of Australia’s most coveted media personalities.
But after a whopper year, Chatfield has just told fans she’s understandably “exhausted”, and has made the “unfortunate decision” to pull out of Beyond The Valley festival where she had been scheduled to perform a live podcast.
“Unfortunately, I have had to make the decision to cancel this live performance,” she wrote on Instagram on Wednesday morning.
“I am so sorry to anyone who was anticipating coming to this show. It’s the last thing I want to have to do and it was a hard decision to make.
“2022 absolutely exhausted me and almost broke me. Mentally and physically I have been sick for most of the year, particularly the second half.
“I’ve run myself into the ground, pushing through when I felt I couldn’t do anymore, but I can’t push through this time.”
Chatfield went on to explain she needed to “listen to my body and mind and take a rest” while reassuring fans she was okay”.
“I’m not having a breakdown, I’ve not fully burnt out, but I’ve gotten close to the edge enough times to know that there should be a threshold before the edge,” she explained.
“There should be a yellow light before red, and I’m currently staring at the yellow light, hoping it goes green in 2023.”
She went on to apologise for being unable to appear at the three-day event scheduled to start at Barunah Plains, Victoria, over the New Year’s Eve period.
Chatfield’s It’s A Lot podcast is one of a string of highly successful ventures she’s maintained in the last year.
In a recent episode she stressed that despite her success, she’ll never (rightfully so) pay off a romantic partner’s debt.
“No … I don’t even want my partner’s BSB … My finances having nothing to do with you, sweetie,” she said.
Reflecting on her mammoth 2022 in a recent interview with Fashion Journal, Chatfield said she “can’t believe” everything she’s achieved in the last 12 months.
“In the last year, I’ve obviously started the radio show, I had The Masked Singer for the first year, I started Verbose, the clothing brand, [and] I started Spill, the beer label. I’ve had my first podcast tour … I feel like I’ve done five million things,” Chatfield said.
“I bought my first property … it’s been an absolute whirlwind. I mean personally, I’ve moved into an apartment I actually own, had a relationship and a break-up. I feel like it’s just been the craziest year but next year is already looking to be even more intense.
“I also hosted Fridayz Live. I just forget the things that I do. It’s just so much. It’s been crazy, time has gone so fast [and] I can’t believe it. Every year I look back at the year before and think about how much I’ve done, and how different life is from only a year before. I can’t imagine what next year’s going to look like.”
Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield and It’s A Lot
Chatfield started the year with a bang, landing herself a major radio gig in January as the host of Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield on the Hit Network.
It led to a live show stage tour around Australia in May – with attendees praising her for giving them “the most fun” and “best show ever”.
As if that weren’t enough to do, Chatfield is also the host of her own podcast, It’s A Lot, which platforms her unashamed advocacy of feminism, sex positivity and mental health.
The Masked Singer and FBOY Island
This year also saw Chatfield land a coveted spot on The Masked Singer Australia’s judging panel, alongside Mel B, Dave Hughes and Chrissie Swan, for which she was reportedly paid $100,000.
In August, she told Yahoo! Lifestyle the experience had “been a whirlwind”.
“I remembered how excited I was to even just be interviewed on Kyle & Jackie O three years ago, and now I’ve got my own radio show and I’ve taken Jackie O’s role on The Masked Singer,” Chatfield said.
“I just feel like things keep coming and I just keep saying yes. I don’t know why I have this career but I love it and I think if I question it too much I might lose it a little bit, so I’ve just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
And things have kept coming – Chatfield announced in mid-December that she’d landed her first TV hosting job: Binge’s upcoming dating series, FBOY Island, which is based off a successful US format and will debut locally in 2023.
Verbose The Label
After dropping a string of cryptic clues, Chatfield launched Verbose The Label – a clothing line that caters for sizes 6 to 26 – in May.
Within minutes of announcing the line, Chatfield’s posts were flooded with comments commending its representation and inclusivity – which she took one step further with the brand’s website itself, with fans praising her for creating a “new way” for women to shop.
Instead of organising the pieces by product, customers are able to shop by their size – therefore viewing each design on a model whose body type actually represents theirs.
“This is how you create a modern day clothing brand. DIVERSITY AND SIZE INCLUSIVITY. Why is it so hard???” one person wrote.
“If you can do it while starting up why can’t these massive million dollar brands do it??? You’ve smashed it.”
Spill Easy Going Lager
In November, Chatfield added brewer to her ever-expanding portfolio, announcing the release of her own beer, Spill Easy Going Lager.
Suffice to say, her announcement came as a surprise to fans – but the format was on brand, with Chatfield posting an ad in which she smashed the beer-swilling male tradie stereotype.
The low-carb, low-calorie lager was developed by Chatfield and Carlton & United Breweries.
“I know that the thought of me starting a beer may seem left of field to some, but anyone who knows me knows that beer is always my go-to drink,” she said in a statement.
Best-selling Vush collaboration
Since her days on The Bachelor, Chatfield has been a champion of female sexual empowerment and liberation – and it’s a niche that she’s managed to capitalise on significantly.
A year after its release, her “game changing” vibrator collaboration with sexual wellness company Vush is still a bestseller, with the profits helping her to buy her $1.45 million property in the Byron Bay Hinterlands.
“At first it was, ‘Do you want to be the face of Vush?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, cool’. At the time, it was three or four months after I quit my corporate job, and I was still thinking, ‘OK, if I can survive month to month, then I won’t go back to my corporate job or I’ll get another degree’,” Chatfield told Mamamia’s No Filter podcast in April.
“But [Vush] was like, ‘No, we’re actually bringing out a new range, do you want to help us design one?’”
Asked by host Mia Freedman if she “bought a house with vibrators”, Chatfield responded: “Yes, the vibrator went really well.”
She followed up on the purchase in February, snapping up a two-bed apartment in Sydney’s Tamarama for a reported $1.8 million.