Ali Oetjen Opened Up About Her Breakup With Bachelorette Winner Taite Radley on SAS Australia Tonight

Ali Oetjen opened up about her split from her Bachelorette winner Taite Radley on tonight’s episode of SAS Australia.

Ali had struggled through the physical and mental challenges of the episode, especially during what seemed like a communal ocean waterboarding, a “surf immersion task”. Positioned in the toughest spot, at the end of the group of linked “recruits” lying down under the waves, Ali struggled to keep her head above water.

During her interrogation, Ali said she was on the show to let go of her fears and anything else that might be holding her back. She explained that she struggled with anxiety because of her time in the spotlight, after revealing earlier in the episode how she previously suffered debilitating panic attacks.

The Directing Staff, Ollie Ollerton and Jason “Foxy” Fox, asked her about her Bachelorette experience. “It went really well,” she began. “It was definitely worth my time because of what I learned about myself,” she said as she started to choke up. “I say that because I met an amazing man and we spent two amazing years together.

“I still think he’s my soulmate, but our timelines are different,” she explained of their breakup.

Ollie and Foxy were strangely tender. Foxy told Ali to “park that sh*t, because it ain’t going to help you on this and it’s not going to help you going forward in the rest of your life”.

“I kind of feel a bit empty,” Ali said, before explaining that she’d be going up to Queensland after the show to live with her parents and “find my feet”.

“You might as well as forget about the distraction and make this your distraction — and then you really will find out about yourself,” Foxy stressed. “Make a concerted effort to commit to this a hundred percent. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself.”

Ali and Taite announced they had broken up in July. In the caption to a vulnerable video of herself crying shared to Instagram in September, Ali wrote, “It’s bloody slow healing, sadness & hurt fill my whole body.”

Ali told The Courier-Mail that after the breakup, she left her home with Taite in Ballarat to go to the Snowy Mountains to isolate for two weeks ahead of filming for SAS Australia in August. From there, she drove up to Queensland.

“I had my whole life in the car,” she said. “I literally said goodbye to Taite in Ballarat and went to an emotional isolation and then straight into SAS, so I wasn’t really going in with the strongest mindset, the break-up was so fresh, but I was focusing on strengthening my mind.”

“I still love [Taite] deeply,” she said. “I don’t think that will ever change. It just didn’t align . . . and we’re both so ambitious and focused on our goals.”

Ali added that SAS Australia had been a “good distraction” from the breakup. “It was getting thrown in the deep end of just solely relying on myself.

“It made me feel invincible and really unlock the knowing that I can do anything. And if I can go through these huge personal experiences, when I experience a lot of trauma, then that makes me a better teacher.”

Ali plans to set up wellness retreats in the Sunshine Coast, where she currently teaches yoga classes. “I want to be by myself. There’s no way I’m looking [for love] at all. It’s going to take me a while.”

SAS Australia airs on Channel Seven, Monday to Tuesday. Join us at our Facebook group Pass the Popcorn to gab about all things reality TV.