Labor staffer and Bachelor star Alisha Aitken-Radburn pens book about ‘villains’ of politics

A former Labor staffer turned reality TV star is about to release a ‘tell-all’ memoir that she says will make political figures shake in their boots.

Alisha Aitken-Radburn’s book The Villain Edit is due out in August.

The title refers to the reality TV practice of portraying people in an unfavorable light – which the 30-year-old claims was done to her as a contestant on The Bachelor.

“Politics in general tends to create villainous characters,” she said when asked about the title of the book.

Advance publicity says the book will “chart Alisha’s journey through the smoke-and-mirror worlds of politics” and promises to show how “important it is to know when to go off-script and take control of the story.” have to take’.

It also promises to end Aitken-Radburn’s time as media adviser to Labor NDIS Minister Bill Shorten when he was Leader of the Opposition, as well as her work for NSW Labor while it was rocked by a corruption investigation.

Aitken-Radburn said the book will make many people in politics anxiously press Ctrl+F to see if they have a name, she said. The Sydney Morning Herald.

She went straight from Shorten’s office, where she had started working in 2017, to become one of the female suitors for rugby star Nick Cummins on the 2018 season of The Bachelor.

At the time, she compared the cut-throat atmosphere of competing for the attention of ‘The Honey Badger’ on the hit Channel 10 reality show to working in politics.

“Canberra, bachelor house, I think they have a little more in common than people think,” she said.

‘Working in the halls of Parliament House was good preparation for some of the drama that takes place in the Bachie mansion.’

However, she admitted that her former colleagues were “baffled” by her new career direction.

After being portrayed as a “bad guy” on The Bachelor, Aitken-Radburn redeemed herself with shining performances on spin-off show Bachelor in Paradise in 2019 and 2020.

She also worked as a NSW Labor staffer for nearly a year and a half and saw her boss Kaila Murnain forced to resign as party secretary over an anti-corruption investigation by ICAC.

Ms Murnain stepped down from her role in October 2019 after admitting she was aware of a potentially illegal donation of $100,000 in 2015 from Chinese Communist Party-affiliated billionaire Huang Xiangmo.

However, happier times beckon for Aitken-Radburn — at least on the romantic front — as she fell for fellow Bachelor in Paradise star Glenn Smith during the 2020 season.

Previously, she had been in a relationship with former Vice President of the Young Liberals, Dean Shachar, who is now chief of staff to Federal Opposition Deputy Leader Sussan Ley.

Aitken-Radburn, who recently started work for community service agency Uniting, married Smith in April at the Parry Beach Breaks resort in Western Australia.

Mingled with many reality TV star guests was former WA Liberal leader Zak Kirkup, who apparently revealed that Aitken-Radburn still has some ties to politics.