Grant Denyer has been getting very candid in the “jungle” — opening up to his fellow contestants about his past alcohol use and addressing old rumours about drug abuse on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.
In 2014, speculation circulated that Denyer and his wife, Chezzi, had issues with methamphetamine use, resulting in them seeking treatment in Thailand.
Speaking to his castmate Toni Pearen, who had nervously broached the subject, Denyer denied the claims were ever accurate.
“For me, the worst of it happened at a time when I was at my worst and wasn’t very strong,” the Family Feud host said. “Someone sold a story to a magazine that claimed we had a significant drug issue. That wasn’t true.”
Denyer stepped down from his position on Sunrise in 2013, with his on-air resignation causing concern due to his gaunt and fidgety appearance.
“Just, you know, how do you counter so many stories and articles once the gossip machine is fired up?”, he asked Pearen. “They’re totally made up, ludicrously ridiculous stories that are just fabricated to sell magazines. It was hard. It was really hard. You don’t know what to do. You’re so scared.”
He continued, “You just don’t know where to run ’cause they’re coming at you from every angle and you just want to go and never come back. So we got away from it all. We went overseas and just worked on ourselves.”
The Gold Logie winner revealed that the toll on Chezzi was heavy, with the currently expectant mum-of-two suffering post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the rumours. For Denyer, he was genuinely concerned he would never work again and about what his daughters, Sailor and Scout, would discover if ever they Googled his name.
“I’m surprised that anybody touched me after that. I really am. But Family Feud came along and, as I said in my Gold Logie speech, it saved my career and it also saved me,” said a teary Denyer. “Got me out of that hole. Very lucky it came along. Because I remember they were really ruthless… It was just so horrible.”
Denyer, who has expressed a goal of giving up alcohol in 2021, is tipped to take home the title of “King of the Jungle” and $250,000 for The Smith Family, his charity of choice.