My boyfriend took another girl on holiday — I made sure it won’t happen again-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

Anya took drastic action and signed Bayley up for Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends (Picture: ITV/Matt Frost/Shutterstock)

Anya Carter wasn’t eating, she was too stressed to sleep and was constantly crying. Despite the circumstances, she wouldn’t remove the cause of the problems from her life: partner Bayley Mummery.

A year ago, she fell completely in love with Bayley, but his serial cheating – including taking another girl to Germany to see Chris Brown – had left her emotionally drained.

Even at breaking point, Anya was convinced that Bayley, who was previously a Casa Amor guy on Love Island in 2023, could change his ways for her. And so instead of walking away, she made the bold decision to sign him up for a brand new reality show — Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends.

The series sends eight terrible boyfriends to a Greek island for a training camp that promises to make them become better partners.

To get the men on the plane, they are brought into the situation under false pretences. Boarding the flight, Bayley believed he was competing in a series about manhood called Brotopia.

After spending one evening at a nightclub, and outrageously flirting with other women, which was caught in 4K, he proved exactly why he’d been signed up for the project.

The morning after, Bayley – alongside his seven co-stars – were informed of the true purpose of their European vacation. The badly-behaved, and slightly hungover, eightsome were visibly shocked at the shock twist, as each girlfriend shared their reason for putting them forward.

Anya wanted Bayley to become a better version of himself for her (Picture: Instagram/Anya Carter)

Anya, 28, was initially hesitant to participate after being contacted by ITV producers. She worried about ‘airing dirty laundry’ to so many strangers. The series has been streamed over six million times on ITVX, so this was a reasonable concern.

However, Anya viewed it as a last-ditch attempt to save her relationship, as despite everything she wanted to be with Bayley, 26 — just a different version.

‘We needed to change our relationship. Something drastic needed to be done,’ Anya told Metro.co.uk.

‘He was an absolute nightmare.’

Her boyfriend’s crimes include but are not limited to; not posting Anya on social media so he could continue to present himself as a single man, failing to contact her during night outs, and taking other women on holiday not once, but twice.

‘I used to get messages from girls telling me what my boyfriend was up to. I was constantly worried,’ she added.

Bayley never posted Anya on social media (Picture: Instagram/Bayley Mummery)

Salon owner Anya acknowledged that most people would consider removing themselves from the situation, but she excused his behaviour.

She reasoned that Bayley, who works as an operations manager, was acting out as he was previously hurt in another relationship. Anya also deciphered that his appearance on Love Island had led to more attention, which was difficult to ignore. ‘He didn’t want to lose me, but he also wanted to have some fun,’ she recalled.

Although she’s ‘angry’ at herself for putting up with so much, she pointed out that Bayley wasn’t all bad, otherwise, she wouldn’t have stuck around.

‘We have big things in common like being family-orientated,’ she said. ‘I became close to his family and they would tell me how much he liked me, and that his mistakes were just because he was fighting how he truly felt. As stupid as that sounds, I think there was some truth.’

She continued: ‘I know it doesn’t make up for what he was doing, but I could see how annoyed he’d be at himself when he messed up. I did feel like he took care of me as well.’

When asked if she considered finding a partner who would treat her better from the start, rather than having to spend her time training Bayley, Anya highlighted her fear of the current dating landscape.

‘Finding someone else did go through my head but I’m 29 this year. I don’t really want to have to meet someone again,’ she honestly admitted.

‘Dating is hard, and the grass isn’t always greener.

‘Sometimes it’s better to work on things, but of course, it can get to a point where you are pushed away so much that you do have to leave. That’s the point I was at when we went on the show.’

Anya credits Olivia for helping her become more confident (Picture: Instagram/Anya Carter)

In the series, the boyfriends were banished to live in ‘Brozone’, which is essentially a park full of dirty caravans, while the women stay in a luxury villa.

The men are given tasks designed to help them grow. The challenges range from giving their girlfriends free rein on their phones and apologising for previous errors, to trying to correctly answer questions about their partners in quizzes.

The light-hearted tone of the series can sometimes feel at odds with the seriousness of the missteps. Questions have arisen about whether the episodes put the onus on women needing to train men, and if they could spread a potentially harmful message that women should stick around in hopes of improvement. Often the more sensible approach is to judge what is presented, rather than the potential.

‘I get it, I should have just left at the first red flag but any relationship isn’t easy. The important part is he wanted to put in the work,’ Anya said in response to the criticism.

A divisive narrative

Host Olivia Atwood, 33, has also spoken out in defence of the show’s concept. ‘My philosophy is that humans are flawed, and humans make mistakes,’ she told us.

‘But I don’t want the narrative to be misconstrued that people should fight for anyone. This experiment was very much about seeing if exposing the boys to their bad behaviour would impact them in a way that they would want to change.

‘I’m not encouraging people to stay with some horrible person who isn’t nice to them. Not the case at all. There is scope for human error, change and development.

‘We’re living in an epidemic of violence against women, and misogyny is at an all-time high and actually, for quite a lot of these guys seeing themselves was a very sobering experience. There’s a deeper route that the show takes.’

Olivia has defended the concept (Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images for the NTA’s)

After 12 episodes, Bayley was hailed as the most improved boyfriend winning the series and therefore £20,000.

He’s not the only one who went on a journey, Anya says she now wouldn’t accept any disrespect and credits Olivia for teaching her boundaries.

‘She helped me become a lot more confident,’ she proudly declared. ‘If he goes back to his old ways, I am gone. He’s had too many chances.’

Bayley has finally posted Anya on Instagram (Picture: Instagram/Bayley Mummery)

Anya believes the TV show has done its job, and Bayley has genuinely transformed. She excitedly told us that they now spend their weekends in Surrey at the stables with her horse Aurora, which Bayley brought her. This ‘wholesome’activity wouldn’t have happened pre-intervention, Anya said.

‘He compliments me. He talks about his feelings. He has a better balance between me and going out.’ She added with a smile: ‘I wear the trousers now.’

Now, Anya’s happy for the world, and more specifically his Instagram followers, to see that Bayley is her good boyfriend.

Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends is available to watch on ITVX

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