It was TV’s night of nights, and the 60th Annual Logie Awards have come to a dramatic end. On the red carpet, stars of hit series Married At First Sight spoke exclusively to New Idea.
Speaking to New Idea, Dean Wells, Davina Rankin, Gabrielle Bartlett, Troy Delmege and Carly Bowyer all touched on fellow contestant Tracey Jewel’s ‘bad week.’
The week leading up to the prestigious award show, Tracey Jewel made headlines after her various controversial media statements were ‘exposed’ – including the reason she was on the Oprah Winfrey Show and her admission to having ‘cancer hair loss.’
Tracey has previously claimed she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent invasive surgery to remove lesions, even going so far as to suggest her ‘cancer’ caused her to lose her hair.
In an Instagram taken from April, Jewel gives a shoutout to her hairdresser: ‘(Hair never grows back after cervical cancer the same way) thank you for always…making my hair look fabulous!’ she wrote.
While Tracey has accurately described her diagnosis as CIN3 (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia), experts have confirmed that describing CIN3 as ‘cervical cancer’ is inaccurate and it doesn’t cause hair loss.
According to the Cancer Council, CIN3 is not cancer, but has the potential to develop into early cervical cancer over about 10-15 years if it is not detected and treated.
The former Married At First Sight bride also came under fire for allegedly lying about her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Tracey has noted several times that she was a special guest on the American program, claiming scouts had discovered her first book Goddess Within during a trip to Sydney in December 2010.
‘What happened was Oprah was in Sydney and they [producers] came across my book somehow…Then they called me and it was a producer of the show. Within 72 hours I was on a plane to Chicago being interviewed as one of her guests,’ Tracey revealed in an interview with news.com.au.
However, this story then contradicts another she later told That’s Life! Jewel told the publication that she received a call from a producer after she wrote to the show about her reaction to Oprah’s guest Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby – a mum who’d accidentally left her child to die in her car.
‘Watching Oprah saved my little girl’s life,’ Tracey told That’s Life!
Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, who sat opposite the talk-show host in the episode, has since claimed this story is false, ‘Tracey was never interviewed by Oprah. And there was absolutely no conversation about her book.’
This claim was further slammed when it was discovered that Tracey’s book didn’t hit shelves until 2011, and her taping of Oprah was recorded in 2010.
Speaking to New Idea on the Logies red carpet, Davina said she ‘sympathised’ with Tracey’s situation.
‘You can’t help but sympathise,’ she said.
‘It’s a tough scenario…I’ve been through it, Dean’s been through it, Gabby, you lucky b***h [laughs], hasn’t…but it’s really hard to see someone go through that kind of scrutiny. You can’t help but feel bad.’
Dean added, ‘I definitely reached out to Tracey to make sure she was ok.
‘I think she’s going through a lot at the moment and everyone just needs to be a bit nicer to her. I don’t think she’s done anything wrong. She messaged me today as well, she wished me good luck. We’re all very supportive within our group.’
Gabrielle Bartlett also exclusively told New Idea, ‘With this group, especially with the women – all of us very much have lifted each other up where we can, nobody’s torn each other down.
‘To speak on behalf of the women of this show, we’ve been fortunate enough to be grouped with some really strong characters – Tracey is one of those. We lift each other up, we don’t tear each other down.’
While most of the MAFS contestants were in attendance at the Logies, Tracey was notably absent.
Despite Married At First Sight’s massive ratings and being nominated for the prestigious Logie award, the show was snubbed for the ‘Most Popular Reality Program’ in favour of The Block at last night’s ceremony.
Twitter erupted with anger after the Channel Nine reality renovation series took home the coveted prize.
See the full story here.
This week on fun TV podcast, Binge List, Matt, Clare and Gavin name their top 5 shows of 2018 so far, their biggest disappointments, their favourite Aussie dramas, and the best of reality TV. They also cast a surprising spotlight on some shows you thought were long gone. Subscribe on iTunes: http://po.st/syE3JF or OMNY: http://po.st/IlEcNa
