'I Won't let the bullies BEAT ME'

DESPITE BEING SEVERELY HARASSED AT SCHOOL, BRIDE BELINDA VICKERS HAS PROVEN SHE’S STRONGER THAN THE HATERS

- Melissa Field

Admitting on national TV that she’d never been on a date or had a boyfriend by the age of 29 is not the most difficult thing Married at First Sight bride Belinda Vickers has been through. Neither is marrying complete stranger Patrick Dwyer on the show. Rather, it was the relentless bullying she experienced in high school.

“I went to an elite private school in Melbourne – very respected in the community, very academic, and as soon as I started there in Year 7, I was picked on,” she shares.

But, Vickers adds, the bullying she endured went far beyond namecalling. “Pretty much, the whole year group had it in for me. I only stayed in that school for a year and a half but even now, I can’t believe I survived it.” That terrible time made door-to-door salesperson Vickers the strong woman she is today, she says, but it wasn’t an easy journey to self-acceptance.

Why do you think you were a target for bullies in school?

There was nothing I did to deserve what happened to me but I think it came down to the fact I was very skinny and scrawny. I had frizzy hair, pale skin and I was very flat-chested. I was the weakling of the year group and that made me a big target from the get-go.

How was it handled at your school?