Disgraced former Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has announced that he and his wife Helen Barron have split after eight years together.
The 35-year-old has now begun to date Claire Johnston who was the former media assistant to ex-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The news came from the jungles of South Africa where the father-of-two is currently staying as part of his reality TV debut on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
His participation in the reality television show and the announcements come less than 12 months after he resigned from office following a travel scandal that involved a billionaire Chinese property developer and political donor.
Dastyari told The Daily Telegraph that the scandal took “everything from me – my career and my family,”
“Helen stood by me during my dark period… the days that I wouldn’t leave me room when I was at rock bottom. It takes a toll on a marriage,” he continued.
He also revealed that being followed by photographers and news crews took a toll too and that he was unable to read newspapers due to the fear he had of what would be in them.
“I changed. I broke. I know I wasn’t able to make her happy and she had a right to move on with her life. She should only ever have had to sacrifice so much. This year we did Christmas apart, sharing the kids. It hurt. It’s still raw. But Helen deserves better. She always did,” he said.
Dastyari wed his former-wife in 2010 and he has described the split has being “very amicable” and that he had “the most supportive and amazing wife.”
He also revealed that he entered the jungle for his two children who he shares with Helen.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, he revealed that his daughter Hannah would soon be old enough to read about the “bad decisions I’ve made in the past” and that he hopes that she will be able to see “other things our there and if that means eating a spider or lying in a snake pit then so be it.”
He will spend up to a month in South Africa competing in the show.
