The final two women kicked to the kerb by Nick Cummins on Thursday’s finale of The Bachelor have defended him against public vitriol.

In a historic double, the former Wallaby became the first leading man in the show’s five-year history “not to have a mouthful of veneers and not to have a clue about what he wanted in a woman”, a TV insider told The New Daily.

In dramatic scenes on Thursday night, Cummins failed to choose a winner, telling both Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman he wasn’t “ready” to commit and his thoughts were in a “cloud.”

Backlash against Cummins began on social media immediately, although many of his 483,000 followers supported his decision to follow his heart and not give it to anyone.

Even the CSIRO got into the act:

Fun fact: Honey badgers live alone in self-dug holes. ^ES pic.twitter.com/bu6X4s9JQJ

— CSIRO (@CSIRO) October 5, 2018

“I hope Australia is a bit more gentle on him. Nobody deserves the bullying and hatred he’s getting,” Brittany told The New Daily on Friday.

“Maybe he didn’t go about it the right way, but for my wellbeing and sanity I have to believe he went on it for the right reasons.

“I think somewhere along the way it was not a good environment for Nick and he lost his way. I have to believe that,” said the radiographer, 30.

Property valuer Sophie, 25, agreed Cummins was no villain, but “I’m still not entirely sure what was going through his head”, she told The New Daily.

“At the end of the day, he’s a good guy. This was his journey and we were just two of the many to see if we ticked the boxes. We didn’t and that’s his choice.

“I respect his decision.”

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Sophie heard the news first, and believed she was the only finalist rejected until she was reunited with Brittany and discovered nobody had won.

“That moment was so real and unexpected. You couldn’t have planned it, and everyone, all the crew, was scattering around trying to make it happen,” said Brittany.

“You were really witnessing two women who just wanted to support each other. We were so emotionally exhausted and confused, we didn’t know how to handle it.

“The whole thing was borderline hilarious.”

The women watched their reality TV heartbreak in a Sydney hotel room together on Thursday night.

“We got a little bit of room service, had a couple of wines, had a cry,” said Brittany.

“Reliving it was really hard and quite emotional. We saw things we hadn’t seen before. It was all very raw.”

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Sophie told The New Daily she knew her fate “the moment” she saw Cummins waiting beside a resort pool in Noumea to deliver his verdict.

“I could just sense he was off,” she said.

“I was really only listening to every second word. I knew where he was going with it. I just wanted to close my eyes then open them up and be back home.”

The Honey Badger, who avoided media heat by decamping to Papua New Guinea earlier this week, has contacted both women and other Bachelorettes since filming finished four months ago.

“The reason he reached out was purely just to check in and make sure we’re OK. We didn’t really have the opportunity to delve much deeper than that,” said Sophie.

“We have a few unanswered questions lingering, and whether they’ll be responded to at any point in time, I’m not sure.”

Brittany said she didn’t feel she was being strung along by Cummins: “But maybe he knew earlier than he was letting on. If Sophie and I had a heads up it wasn’t going to be anyone, we would have been out of there”.

Answering reports he’s back with an ex, Cummins previously told The Kyle and Jackie O Show, “Oh good lord. What I can say is not a lot … but I’m bloody happy”.