LAURA JOHNS

April 27, 2012

Reality TV show ‘Beauty and the Geek’ contestants Mackenzie Smits and Troy Thompson have become victims of bullying through social media.

The engaged couple may have found love on the show but in reality they are being sniped on their Facebook pages by aggressive internet interlopers.

“People judge us and say nasty things when they don’t even know us from a bar of soap,” said Smits, 22.

Smits has 48,000 subscribers to her personal Facebook account who are able to comment on her profile when her statuses are public.

“It’s hard because you want to please your fans but at the same time it’s never nice when people hate on you and make nasty comments,” she said.

Smits checks her Facebook page.

After being harassed with emails through Facebook, Thompson, 23, changed his profile to ‘private’ to cope with his 60,000 subscribers.

“On one certain occasion I had emails from a jealous fan making accusations that Troy had cheated on me,” Smits said.

“In the end it turned out the crazed fan wanted to break Troy and myself up so she could be with him even though she’d never met him.”

Smits said she had learnt to cope with daily bouts of cyber bullying.

“I can deal with the bullying because I have an amazing fiancé I can rely on for support but I feel sorry for the kids who are victims of cyber bullying on a daily basis,” she said.

“I don’t condone any form of bullying but I find cyber bullying to be the most cowardly of them all.”

Both Smits and Thompson were ‘beauties’ on the show.

Photo: Laura Johns