Shayna Jack has opened up about the emotional and financial strain being at the centre of a doping scandal had on her, and her family.
The 26-year-old spoke candidly with her fellow campmates on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! about her ordeal on their first night in the jungle, revealing that she spent almost $180,000 trying to prove her innocence, draining her savings in the process.

What was Shayna Jack accused of?
Shayna Jack was accused of doping after she tested positive for a small amount of Ligandrol in 2019, which can help repair and build muscles.
That year, she was initially banned from competing for four years, which meant she was unable to go to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games.
She then appealed her ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which halved it to two years in November 2020, and found she did not knowingly ingest the substance.
Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that reduction the following month, which was rejected by CAS in 2021.
At the time, she relied on her partner Joel Rintala, who is now her fiancé, for support.

What did Shayna Jack say about her doping scandal on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here?
“Some nights I was like, in a bad place,” an emotional Shayna shared with her fellow celebrities.
“You know, he [Joel] said those bad nights were the most fearful, like he said you know he’d been at home because he just didn’t know if he was gonna walk home into something he wasn’t able to cope with, because in the end, like I’d done something I would eternally regret,” she added.
“For me, it’s just using the people around me to continue to open up about it and face those difficulties and stop giving it so much power, because I feel like the more I take it off my chest and take it off my heart, the more I can try to move forward with my life and not feel this huge aspect of my life pulling me back.”
The athlete then made the shocking admission that she spent $180,000 during the court battle and went into financial debt to prove her innocence.
“I’m so much stronger for everything I’ve gone through, and I’m a hell of a lot better a person, but that doesn’t make it easy,” she lamented.
Having a moment alone in the show’s to-camera confessional booth, Shayna shed light on why she felt it was important, to be honest about her highly publicised history, and all the controversy that came with it.
“It’s using the people around me to continue to open up about it and face those difficulties and stop giving it so much power,” she said of the scandal.
“I feel like the more I take it off my chest and take it off my heart, the more I can try to move forward with my life and not feel this huge aspect of my life pulling me back.”

In an Instagram post in September 2021, Shayna said she was “so overwhelmed with joy” to return to what she loved without restrictions following the court battle.
She made her official swimming comeback in 2021 at the Queensland State Championships, where she took out the 50-metre freestyle race, and came second in the 100-metre freestyle.
Throughout her career, she has won 10 gold, 12 silver, and six bronze medals across different Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and championships.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she took home two gold medals in the Women’s 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay and Women’s 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit their website.