You need to watch young, scruffy Matty Johnson in a 2009 advert for tampons

Australia's Matty Johnson has a secret past: selling tampons.

In a 2009 television commercial that surfaced this week, Matty looks completely different to the man we've come to know from his time on The Bachelorette and The Bachelor.

The 30-second clip – which advertises U by Kotex sanitary products - shows a 22-year-old Matty caressing a girl's hair while he asks her what essentials she'd take with her if she was stranded on a desert island.

"My music, a tent, a few clothes, plenty of fluids, and I’d need U for protection," she tells him.

A beaming Matty looks proud, assuming she's referring to him and not the feminine product.

Speaking with Woman's Day, Matty has since admitted to his secret past as the face of tampons and pads.

"It aired on MTV and a few friends recognised it, but it’s safe to say I was never stopped in the street!" he told the magazine.

But has his current girlfriend - who we know to be one of the eight women left in the Bachelor mansion - seen the ad?

"I don’t think she is aware of it,” he said. "So when she reads this it will be a little bit enlightening for her!"

Indeed.