Newlyweds Tess and Luke Struber walked away as winners of The Block 2019 on Sunday.
WATCH: Tess and Luke crowned the winners of The Block 2019
However the Cairns couple, who pocketed $630,000 profit and a $100,000 cash prize after their St Kilda terrace sold for $3.62 million, spoke out after their win, explaining that their time on the show had been “tough”.
“It is hard because you get so upset… we were imagining not winning anything today; nothing at all,” Tess, 27, told Domain after the auction.
“We won the least amount of rooms so we were working with the least amount of budget,” she said.
“You know, we were really raw and honest the whole time, especially after watching it back and just seeing how we’ve been portrayed as a little lazy,” Tess explained.
Meanwhile, Luke, 29, confirmed that they had made “life-long friends” with their co-stars.
“We made lifelong friends, these people will be a part of our lives in a way that our closest friends and our family will never understand how that works,” he said.
Tess and Luke recently unleashed on The Block producers, calling them out for their unfair portrayal during editing.
Speaking to News.com.au, Luke said: “We’re getting sick of how they’re editing us as being these big lazy pr**ks who don’t get off their a**e and do a single thing.
“We’re just getting painted as these lazy people and we’re bloody sick of it. Even the other contestants have contacted us to say, ‘That didn’t happen, that was taken out of context’.”
While Tess and Luke had also had to deal with backlash from fans online, fellow contestant Andy Saunders commended the couple.
“I feel so happy that Tess and Luke took it out because they’ve copped so much lately and so much online. [This] is just the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for them,” he told Domain.
“The sh*t that they’ve been going through, it’s sort of culminated into a beautiful payout.
“They feel like they’ve come out on top.”
While Tess and Luke took out this year’s top spot, all the couples walked away with a handsome profit:
Tess and Luke: $630,000 and $100,000 cash prize
El’ise and Matt: $460,000
Andy and Deb: $430,000
Jesse and Mel: $388,000
Mitch and Mark: $384,000
WATCH: The Block’s Scott Cam EXPLODES at contestants Tess and Luke
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