The Villain Edit

A memoir about identity and authenticity in the smoke-and-mirror worlds of politics, reality TV and social media, from Bachelor star Alisha Aitken-Radburn.


When former government staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn was given a 'villain edit' on her first season of The Bachelor, she wasn't entirely surprised-after all, there are only a handful of character tropes producers can manipulate into storylines. But the backlash on social media was unexpectedly intense, and Alisha found her sense of identity completely rocked by a single comment: 'You are a bad person'.


Determined to shake the 'villain' label, she returned to reality TV screens, and this time, she got a different edit. She was met with praise and empathy, and her portrayal led to a third and final season, where she met the man she would marry.


But along Alisha's rocky path in the reality TV spotlight, the line between truth and fiction blurred. She cared about other people's opinions more than her own, and her insatiable quest for external validation saw her outsourcing her decisions and her self-worth to everyone from anonymous forum-lurkers to journalists and politicians.


The Villain Edit charts Alisha's journey through the smoke-and-mirrors worlds of politics, reality TV and social media. Navigating the secrets, lies and hard truths that are laced through even the most fairytale of endings, it reveals how the perceptions of others can rewrite the story of who we think we are, and how important it is to know when to go off-script and take control of the narrative.