Bachelor winner Rice jumps ship to TVNZ

The Bachelor winner Matilda Rice has left TV3 for a new job at TVNZ. Photo / 3 News

TV3 Bachelorette Matilda Rice has defected from her sales job at MediaWorks to go and work for the opposition at TVNZ.

TV3 MediaWorks insisted its sales executive had applied with the producer of "The Bachelor" to be a contestant without their knowledge. It subsequently changed the rules so that staff members could not apply.

If there was any payoff for having its advertising sales executive going on to win the reality TV show, it is gone now, since MediaWorks confirmed today that Rice had left the company.

TVNZ confirmed she has been employed at the state-owned broadcaster in a sales role.

Back in July another contestant for "The Bachelor", Chrystal Chenery was critical of MediaWorks over the The Edge breakfast host Dom Harvey making lewd comments about a shot of her the TV3 series "Dancing With The Stars."

The controversy was dubbed "crotchgate" and Chenery called on MediaWorks to sack their high rating breakfast co-host.

Last week it was revealed that a senior Mediaworks executive, - Head of Revenue Liz Fraser, had also left the company.