All the scandals to come out of dating series Beauty and The Geek

Channel Nine is rebooting dating series Beauty and the Geek in 2021 after a seven-year hiatus from TV.

And the format has certainly had its share of drama and scandals since first gracing Australian screens in 2009.

From exposed actors and a hidden child to reality TV revivals no one saw coming: here are some of the shocking moments and scandals to come out of Beauty and the Geek’s first six seasons.

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The initial series, which ran on Seven, was cancelled in 2014 after ratings flopped. 

EXPOSED ACTORS

Beauty and the Geek came under fire in 2011 when ‘geek’ Bendeguz Daniel Devenyi-Botos admitted he joined the series to further his acting career.

Despite being billed as a historian on the dating show, Bendeguz later confessed to dropping out of university to focus on acting.

He told The Sunday Telegraph at the time: ‘The producers found me while I was in a play… I have no idea why [they] chose not to mention that I’m an actor.’ 

Season two star Marlon Dance-Hooi was also later revealed to be a former child star.

Since his appearance on the 2010 season, he has voiced a number of animated characters for children’s shows such as Oddbods and Argo’s World.

SECRET CHILD

As the program is designed to pair beautiful women with socially inept men, fans were shocked to discover a contestant on the first season was already a father.   

After the scandal was first speculated about in online forums in 2009, the network later confirmed Corin Storkey indeed shared a daughter with an ex-girlfriend. 

The then-PhD student lived with his organic chemist girlfriend while he attended college in New Zealand. They dated for four years and had a daughter named Beth.

Corin told the Herald Sun at the time: ‘She was the main relationship of my life after we got together when I was 18… we split up just around the time she got pregnant and she has since married.’ 

JAILED STAR 

In April, Jordan Finlayson sobbed as a judge sentenced her to up to four years’ jail for dealing heroin – after hearing how her life spiraled out of control following her brush with fame.

The Beauty and the Geek runner-up cried out as New South Wales District Court Judge Phillip Mahony hit her with the hefty jail sentence.

Ms Finlayson was a successful model and dancer, an NRL cheerleader and, briefly, the face of the Chiko roll. She dated ‘Geek’ Lachlan Cosgrove for close to a year after the program, but the relationship fizzled out.

Jail was the culmination of a stretch of drug-related crime for Finlayson, who appeared in front of Sydney’s Downing Centre Court via audio-visual link from jail.

She sat hunched in a crumpled green prison jumpsuit, her hair in a messy bun, as details were revealed of her drugged-out downfall.

FAILED ENGAGEMENT 

Troy Thompson and Mackenzie Smits got engaged during season three. 

While their relationship did last for a few years, they later ended their engagement. 

Mackenzie is now a mother, and Troy looks very different to how he did on the show as he is now a muscular, tattooed personal trainer.  

REALITY TV REVIVALS 

Love Island Australia star Erin Barnett made her reality TV debut on season five of Beauty and the Geek in 2013, when she was just 18 years of age.

Lisa McMahon, who finished runner-up with Corin in season one, returned to TV a decade later to compete on House Rules with husband Andy Carman.

Season four star Jessica Zinna later married Matt Gallagher from Farmer Wants a Wife in 2016.

Applications are now open for Australian nerds and ‘beauties’ looking for love on the next season of Beauty and the Geek.

The revived dating series is making a comeback in 2021, and will appear on screens nationwide after being axed by Channel Seven in 2014.

It will be hosted by former Bachelorette Sophie Monk, who has had her fair share of unlucky-in-love moments in the public eye.