SPOILERS are ahead for the first eight episodes of Perfect Match, now streaming with a Netflix subscription.
With two-thirds of Netflix’s crossover competition dating show, Perfect Match over, Francesca Farago has proved to be a wildcard contestant who isn’t afraid to shake up the competition. The Too Hot To Handle star started things off by getting cozy with The Mole’s Dom before a shocking moment where she put herself on a date with Love Is Blind’s Damian. The latest development from the recent batch of episodes found Francesca hitting things off with Twentysomethings: Austin star Abbey Humphreys in the Netflix dating show’s first same-sex coupling this season.
When Francesca Farago reflected on her date with Abbey Humphreys in Episode 8, the reality star recalled how her opportunity to represent her bisexuality in a big way on the series came about. In an interview with Variety, Farago shared that when she signed on to Perfect Match, she wasn’t told she’d have the opportunity to date both genders. Here’s what happened in her words:
I think that was something that I kind of guided towards during filming…I reached a point where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to remain in the house anymore because I just I didn’t know if there was someone for me there. I knew who was there, men-wise, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can waste anyone’s time by continuing to match with these men that I know I’m not going to get along with.’ Then, I found out there was a possibility of me being matched with a female, and I was like, ‘In that case, I will stay for that.’ I wasn’t even sure if it was going to happen because it was a heterosexual show. But I’m glad that it happened, and I’m glad that that relationship happened as well. I kind of just switched up the game.
Four more episodes of Perfect Match are dropping on Netflix on Tuesday, February 28.
In the episode, Farago and Humphreys get a chance to talk about their experiences as they picnic on the beach. Abbey shares that she’s known she has been attracted to men and women since she was young. She was in a five-year marriage with a man that did not last, and in her singledom has been open to dating both genders. In terms of Francesca's Perfect Match dating experience, she only had the option to date men on the show thus far before Ines chose to match her up with Abbey for the date.
During the recent batch of episodes of Perfect Match, Kariselle Snow of Sexy Beasts also spoke to her partner on the show, The Circle’s Joey Sasso, about her bisexuality, and how she fears her identity in the LGBTQ+ community will be lost in a heterosexual relationship. Joey made Kariselle feel comfortable in that moment, saying it’s part of who she is, and he accepts it and wouldn’t care what anyone thinks.
As Farago also shared in the interview, it’s more important than ever for the LGBTQ+ community to be represented. As she continued:
Especially the way the world is right now, I feel like there is so much going on. It’s crazy, the hate towards our community. The hate is a lot louder than anything else. People are still getting death threats and people are still getting like attacked in public and it’s very dangerous for people in our community, especially certain members… I feel like representation is so important because it’ll show audiences that we’re normal people. Just because we identify in a certain way doesn’t mean that we deserve this huge amount of hate.
Farago also said that her current partner is trans and he gets “death threats” on social media. She felt that it goes to show that the “more representation we have, the more positive it will be” because the public will see that the queer community are “just normal people.” Dating shows have certainly been overtly straight in the past, so Francesca Farago getting to explore dating both genders is not only a boost for LGBTQ+ representation on Netflix, it's more true to who she is in the dating world.
