Alpha female Gabs in sexy glamazon shoot

Independent and sophisticated: Gabs strikes a pose in a glamorous fashion shoot for Scout at SkyCity's Grand Presidential Suite. / Scout

She’s a sassy, confident woman with a strong independent streak and a glossy, sophisticated image. If she can’t get a man, what luck do the rest of us have, right?

But Gabrielle Davenport insists she entered The Bachelor to meet a guy.

/ Scout

“I’m 29. I haven’t met anyone organically. I thought, what have I got to lose?” she tells me with the same sense of strong-minded pragmatism that has seen her painted as the alpha woman of the show.Gabs, as she prefers, is level headed and realistic about most things, but the episode last night brought back emotions for her that she thought had been buried.

/ Scout

“It’s funny,” she tells Scout. “Last night, watching it back brought up those same feelings again, it was really intense and emotional for me.

“That episode was really heated for all of us. I think we’d all gotten to that point where we had invested so much, and we felt tired and homesick and drained. It was full on. What you saw last night was real for all of us.”

/ Scout

Gabs has left the show and gone back to her life as a marketing executive. She flats with former X Factor NZ contestant Steve Broad, but insists there’s no funny business there.

“Nooooo, we’re just mates,” she tells Scout. “Steve is a great friend and was a great support while I was on the show.

“He didn’t know I was going home last night, and he turned to me and said, ‘You handled yourself really well, you left with dignity’, and that really meant a lot.”

/ Scout

During filming she focused, she says, on being true to herself.

“It’s not easy in that environment, you know. I was constantly checking myself, and asking, ‘are you still having a good time with him?’ I didn’t want to over-analyse the situations too much. I didn’t want to play into those head games.”

That sense of self-awareness was distinctly lacking in Fleur last night whose emotions were swept out of control.

/ Scout

“Yeah, Fleur got overwhelmed and needed support,” Gabs said.

“It is ironic, because while you’re in a house all waiting for the same guy, you have a real friendship and camaraderie and you look out for each other. We are experiencing the same things and we look out for each other."

Gabs has developed strong friendships from the show, and says she will cherish her relationships with the women, especially Kate, Danielle, Erin, Lara and Shari.

The glamazon with the model-looks may have entered the show looking for a man, but she's left with a strong bond of sisters.