York musician Bonnie Milnes invited five men to move in with her in an attempt to find love – and, happily, we can all watch what happened next!
Singer-songwriter Bonnie stars in an episode of hit Channel 4 dating show Five Guys a Week, which airs this Friday (25 September).
The show has a simple premise: a single woman chooses five guys, they move in, and each day she asks one of them to leave. But will the last man standing be her perfect match?
It’s not the most conventional route to finding love – but Bonnie, 24, has high hopes.
She has spent most of her life living with her family, but she’s also the frontwoman for her band Bonnie And The Bailers “and yearns for some excitement in the love department”.
Bonnie has recently completed a 500-mile hike to raise money for Women’s Aid (more on that below) and she took part in the show to have some fun and see what happened.
So who are the men vying for her affections?
Meet Bonnie’s suitors
Ray
He likes to call himself ‘Fifty Shades of Ray’ – finance administrator by day, fashionable “peacock” (his words) by night
Eden, 26
A vegan yoga teacher who does his bit to save the planet by buying all his clothes in charity shops
Ruben, 21
The aerospace engineering student loves shopping in charity shops and finding “gems” – he is always praised on his style and says it attracts girls on Instagram who start messaging him
Ben, 23
The London-based personal trainer runs exercise classes in five-star hotels, Ben gets teased by his friends for being “highly competitive” at everything
Charlie, 24
Charlie is a sensitive romantic and aspiring singer-songwriter, who turns up on her doorstep with his guitar and quickly sets about composing a heartfelt ballad in her honour
At the final romantic dinner – for three! – at which she must eliminate the runner-up and select her new partner, Bonnie faces a dilemma. Does she go for the guy who she thinks is the best-looking, or the one she’s most in tune with emotionally?
Five Guys A Week is on Channel 4 on Friday, 25th September at 10pm
Bonnie smashes fundraising target
Busy Bonnie has been far from relaxing since filming for the show finished. For the last month she has been walking the gruelling 500-mile (800-km) pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago de Compostella to raise funds for the Women’s Aid charity. She completed the walk last week.
She was recreating a walk she first accomplished with her family in 2003. She was just seven at the time. Bonnie told YorkMix: “Since doing that walk my eldest sister, Ruby, passed away and this time I was walking every mile in memory of her.”
“The first 300 hundred kilometres going from France into northern Spain was amazing. I was reconnecting with the smells and tastes I’d experienced as a child.
The real challenge came while crossing the Maseta. It’s flat desert land which continues for 200km. That was a week of walking all day with unchanging landscape down one road through very dry barren land. That part was the most mentally challenging.
“After that, the final 300km were beautiful. I’ve been surrounding by lush mountainous nature, safe in the knowledge I’m almost there. People have been so kind on the way and I have been overjoyed at the generous donations to Women’s Aid. It put a spring in my step knowing I was raising money for such a great cause by walking such a beautiful long road.”
So far, Bonnie has raised £3,457, exceeding her £3,000 fundraising target target.
There was an emotional end to the walk. After Bonnie collected her pilgrim certificates at Santiago cathedral, she continued to Cape Finisterre on the coast about 50 miles away, the end of the traditional pilgrims’ way. At the journey’s end route-marker she laid flowers in memory of her sister Ruby.