‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ Star Speaks out on Breakup

Farmer Wants a Wife star Jarrad Wrigley still has plenty of love for Chloe Ilka despite their breakup.

After becoming the first couple to find love and leave the rodeo on Season 15 of the Australian version of the popular dating show, the former couple confirmed during the FWAW reunion last month that they’d gone their separate ways.

Now Wrigley has broken his silence on their split, telling fans in a Monday, June 23 Instagram video his experience on the show has been “the most amazing thing I’ve ever done” and that he still feels “positive… It hasn’t been the easiest thing at all, especially for someone who doesn’t like to be seen sad.”

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“I’d also like to jump on here quickly and really, really, make it clear that Chloe was, and is, one of the most amazing women that I’ve ever been fortunate enough to meet,” he continued. “I was very, very lucky to have her in my life – it wasn’t for the longest time, it was only a couple of months after we finished filming.”

Getting ahead of the “rumor train,” Wrigley added that Ilka “is an amazing woman” and “the decision she made was the right decision – I shouldn’t even say decision she made, it’s not as if she just woke up one day and was like, ‘We’re done.’” The Stanthorpe sheep farmer went on to explain that he and Ilka decided to go their separate ways after they “had several conversations, serious, adult conversations about if it was going to work.” He said they ultimately “came to the conclusion that it wasn’t. And it wasn’t exactly great, but I completely respected that decision and I would like everybody else to as well… She’s amazing.”

Wrigley and Ilka, a Queensland bartender, sparked romance during their appearance on Season 15 of Farmer Wants a Wife Australia, with Wrigley declaring just three weeks into the season that “this farmer may have found his wife.” During the season reunion last month, however, the pair confirmed their split, Ilka tell the audience that she called tings off.

“I definitely see him as a really good mate and I will always be there for him and support him in what he does,” she said. “But I don’t think you really understand how hard it is going to be until you’re living it and at this current time our lives are on different paths.”

At the time, Wrigley admitted he “couldn’t give as much time as I did when I was on this experience. Life went back to the way it normally is.”

Although the pair has opted to go their separate ways, they said they were open to reconciliation “in the future,” Wrigley adding that “at the end of the day, Chloe is an amazing person and I’ve loved having her in my life.”