Gary Sweet has revealed a major family secret for the first time on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Australia.
The actor, 68, stunned his campmates by sharing a previously untold story, revealing that he was actually raised by his aunt and uncle.
“Would you like to hear something weird? I’ve never ever told this story,” he admitted, before sharing the unique tale about his background.
He explained that his biological parents were getting divorced when his mother was pregnant, and the family decided that Gary would instead be raised by his aunt and uncle, who couldn’t have children.
“In my dad’s family, there were eight kids. The two closest were Bill and Phil,” he shared.
“Bill and his wife had four daughters. They were getting divorced, but she was pregnant. Phil and his wife were unable to have children.
“So when the baby was born, they gave the baby to his younger brother, Phil. The baby was me.”
“So my biological parents became my uncle and auntie, and my sisters became my cousins.”
Gary was adopted and raised by his aunt and uncle in Adelaide, while the rest of his family lived in Melbourne, and said he rarely discussed the situation with his biological parents.
He said his family didn’t have enough money to regularly visit Melbourne when he was a child, meaning he didn’t see his biological parents and sisters very much.
“When I moved to Melbourne [as an adult], I used to see my biological father quite a bit,” he said.
“It never really came up. Um, occasionally, if he was drunk, he’d say stuff (about it).”
The truth was never hidden from Gary, and he was around seven years old when he first found out about the adoption.
He admitted that he ultimately saw the adoption as a good thing for his family.
“It’s a good thing to grow up with people who really, really wanted you that badly,” he added.
Gary now has a large family of his own and is a parent to six children.
He welcomed two children, Frank and Sophie, with his first wife, lawyer Jill Miller, before the pair split in 1993.
During his high-profile relationship with Johanna Griggs, Gary had another two children, Joe and Jesse.
He also shares two children, Frederic and Percy, with his current partner, Nadia Dyall.
