Abbie Chatfield and Konrad Bien-Stephen: Inside Their Open Relationship

A note from Gildas Garrec, Psychologie et Sérénité / ScanMyLove

What stays with me about Abbie Chatfield and Konrad Bien-Stephen's story isn't the open relationship itself — it's how ordinary the rest of it turned out to be, layered underneath a very public disclosure. A couple goes public with an unconventional arrangement, faces the scrutiny that comes with that, and eventually splits, quietly and without a tidy explanation, the way most relationships do. If you're navigating the end of a relationship yourself, whatever shape it took, our Breakup Test is built to help you locate which stage of heartbreak you're actually in. I've also written a book on exactly this territory, <em>Surviving the Breakup: From Heartbreak to Renewal</em>, if you'd like to go further into the five stages of romantic grief and what actually helps you move through them. If it's your current relationship you want to understand better, ScanMyLove analyzes what your own conversations actually reveal.

Reality dating shows are built to produce couples, but what happens after the cameras stop rolling rarely follows the format's script. Abbie Chatfield's relationship with Konrad Bien-Stephen is a case in point: it began off-screen, after Bien-Stephen's own run on a dating show that wasn't even Chatfield's, was conducted publicly as an openly non-monogamous arrangement at a time when few Australian media personalities discussed that choice so directly, and ended in the ordinary, unglamorous way most relationships do — quietly, and without a tidy explanation. In March 2026, the story gained one more chapter neither party could have anticipated when it began: Bien-Stephen's death at 35, four years after their relationship had ended.

From The Bachelorette Australia to a Public Couple

Chatfield's own reality television career started on The Bachelor Australia in 2019, where she finished as runner-up — a result that made her one of the most recognisable contestants to come out of the Australian franchise without actually winning it. Konrad Bien-Stephen's path crossed a different season of the format: he appeared on The Bachelorette Australia in 2021, the season led by Brooke Blurton, and was among the show's final contestants. He and Chatfield began dating shortly after his season aired, in early 2021 — two people whose public profiles had both been shaped by the same dating-show machinery, now building a relationship largely outside it.

Going Public With an Open Relationship

What set the relationship apart from most of the pairings that come out of reality dating shows wasn't how it started, but how the couple chose to describe it. Chatfield and Bien-Stephen went public with the fact that theirs was an open relationship, telling media outlets they had agreed they could see other people. As the host of a long-running podcast built around candid conversation, Chatfield was unusually direct about the arrangement compared to most public figures navigating the same choice — and the disclosure itself became a story, independent of anything else happening in the relationship.

The Scrutiny That Followed

That directness came with a cost. Chatfield later described encountering an "issue" within the open arrangement after facing criticism over it, without abandoning the choice itself or treating the criticism as proof it had been the wrong one. Non-monogamous relationships disclosed publicly tend to draw a specific kind of attention that monogamous ones don't: commentary on the arrangement itself, rather than on the two people in it, can end up dominating the conversation regardless of how the relationship is actually going day to day. Chatfield continued to discuss the arrangement publicly, including the criticism she faced over it, rather than dropping the subject once that criticism appeared — continued coverage that made the relationship a recognisable reference point in Australian entertainment coverage of dating culture at the time.

Rumors, a Statement, and a Breakup

By 2022, roughly six months after the relationship had become public knowledge, speculation about a split began circulating. Chatfield addressed the rumors directly rather than letting them sit unanswered, saying at the time that she felt anxious about putting out a public statement on her own relationship — a discomfort that speaks to the position of discussing a breakup in public rather than to anything specific about why the relationship ended. Reporting from the period characterized the reasons behind the split as unclear or complicated, without either party offering a detailed public account of what led to it. What is established is simpler: the relationship, which had begun in early 2021, had ended by around September 2022, roughly a year and a half after it started.

A Loss in 2026

Konrad Bien-Stephen died on 30 March 2026 in Melbourne, at the age of 35. His management confirmed the news in a statement: "It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Konrad Bien-Stephen." No cause of death has been made public.

Chatfield responded with a lengthy tribute posted to her Instagram Stories. She wrote that she was "devastated for Konrad, his friends and his family," and described the news as "incredibly difficult and strange" for her personally. She remembered him as "such a kind and sweet person to everyone" and "a very caring man who deserved to live a very, very long life," and urged her followers to "check in on your mates." She was also careful to be precise about where things actually stood between them by the time of his death, noting plainly: "we haven't spoken for years." That detail is her own account, offered without prompting, of the distance between two people whose relationship had once been closely covered.

What an Open Relationship, Made Public, Reveals About Dating Culture

Chatfield and Bien-Stephen's relationship is a useful example of a broader pattern in how reality-TV-adjacent dating culture actually functions: an arrangement that would draw little outside comment if kept private becomes, once disclosed by a public figure, a subject people feel entitled to weigh in on independent of how the two people involved experience it. That's not unique to open relationships — public breakups of every kind attract the same dynamic — but disclosed non-monogamy tends to invite a particular flavor of scrutiny, where the structure of the relationship gets discussed as though it were the whole story. Chatfield continued to discuss the arrangement in public comments, including acknowledging friction within it, rather than going silent once it drew criticism — continued public comment, on her part, rather than the alternative of leaving the relationship's structure to be narrated entirely by others.

Where Things Stand

Chatfield has continued to build her media career in the years since, hosting FBoy Island Australia and remaining a fixture of Australian podcasting and television. She has been in a relationship with musician Adam Hyde, of the duo Peking Duk, since 2024. Bien-Stephen's death in March 2026 closed a chapter that had, by his own former partner's account, already been closed for years by the time it happened — a reminder that the public record of a relationship and its private aftermath don't always move at the same pace.

Related reading

• Soft Dating and Slow Dating: The 2026 Trends, Decoded by a Couples Therapist
• The 5 Phases of Breakup Grief and How to Survive Them

FAQ

Are Abbie Chatfield and Konrad Bien-Stephen still together?

No. The couple's relationship ended by around September 2022, roughly a year and a half after they got together. Konrad Bien-Stephen died in March 2026, four years after the relationship had ended; Chatfield has said the two hadn't spoken in years by that point.

Did Abbie Chatfield and Konrad Bien-Stephen have an open relationship?

Yes. The couple publicly described their relationship as open shortly after they got together in 2021, and Chatfield continued to discuss the arrangement, including criticism she faced over it, in subsequent public comments.

Who is Abbie Chatfield dating now?

Abbie Chatfield has been in a relationship with musician Adam Hyde, of the Australian duo Peking Duk, since 2024.