It comes amid rumours he’s in love with host Sam Armytage!

Amid persistent rumours that he has fallen for host Samantha Armytage, The Golden Bachelor’s Barry ‘Bear’ Myrden has seemingly revealed that he and the winner of the show are no longer together.

New Idea can reveal that, on his Instagram account, Bear currently states in his bio that he is a “single father of three”.

Previously set to ‘private’, Bear made his profile public on October 23, with his single status visible for his followers to see, just a few days after The Golden Bachelor premiered. It remained this way as this article was published.
Bear still calls himself a “single father of three boys” on Instagram. (Credit: Instagram/MATRIX)

Secret split?

It’s possible that the bio could still be in place from before Bear’s casting on The Golden Bachelor. He lost his wife, Audrey, to brain cancer 14 years ago and has raised their now-adult sons, Jack, Declan, and Charlie, as a single father.

However, sources say it’s rather odd that Bear, 61, would go in and update his privacy settings this week but not change his bio too, if he were in fact happily loved up.

He’s also had plenty of time to update his status, too, as he was posting on the account back in May, around the time the show finished filming.

While it’s believed that Bear does pick someone at the finale, there are loudening whispers that they’ve since split.

Following the premiere episodes, Jan and Janette are the current frontrunners for the final rose. Neither of them was following Bear’s Instagram account when he turned it public, although Sunny and Catherine are.

His chemistry with Sam

Sam announced her split from her ex-husband Richard Lavender in December 2024, shortly after The Golden Bachelor was announced. She continues to maintain she is not dating Bear. However, even she doesn’t deny that they have an obvious connection.

In fact, last week she admitted Bear was partly cast as Australia’s first-ever Golden Bachelor due to his chemistry with her!

Sam told Yahoo Lifestyle that she met with the three men being considered for the gig before producers made their pick.

“I did get to meet them, the final three before we chose, and Bear was the very obvious choice,” she said. “I mean, he’s handsome, but besides that, he was so kind. His story was so powerful and tragic, and he was ready.”

For Bear’s part, he told the Daily Mail at the show’s Sydney premiere that it was to be “expected” that he and Sam would be linked, but that the romance chatter was just “rumours”.
Sam shared a cosy selfie with Bear from the first night of filming. (Credit: Instagram)

History repeating?

If Bear has broken up with his winner, it would mirror what happened with the first season of the US The Golden Bachelor in 2023.

Their first-ever silver-haired suitor and fellow widower, Gerry Turner, picked Theresa Nist as his winner. He proposed, and they got married in a wedding special that aired in January 2024. However, they filed for divorce just three months later.

In October, Gerry announced that he is once again off the market, having proposed to his new girlfriend, Lana Sutton.