With all the extra downtime this year, plenty of celebrities and reality stars have taken the chance to start their own podcasts.
But few have had us as excited as the announcement from beloved couple, Grant and Chezzi Denyer about their new podcast It’s All True? .
The joint project sees the husband and wife duo discuss all things, well, them.
Unfiltered and completely candid, the couple’s first episode revisited some their most shocking headlines and turbulent times, including Grant’s horrific road accident and the subsequent effect of pain medication had on him and their relationship.
“Some of the things that have happened to us over the years are so out there, they don’t seem true,” Grant says at the beginning of the episode.
And he’s not wrong.
Grant and Chezzi get candid in their new podcast.
(Instagram)The Family Feud host and TV WEEK Gold Logie winner was almost paralysed after a shocking stunt – jumping seven cars in a monster truck – went wrong.
“I was jumping seven cars, landed,” he recalls.
“The suspension broke, I think. My back then broke, instantly. The pain shot up so fast, I was like, ‘I’m in a lot of trouble here’.
“I was in such a bad way that none of the morphine was working and I could tell veteran [paramedic] was like, I’ve given enough to put an elephant down here.”
With a shattered vertebra, doctors feared Grant would never walk again.
Despite the agonising pain and long road to recovery, Grant admits “the medication is the worst part, by far”.
“We were warned by a friend who had recently gone through a broken back, on all the things that will start going on in our brain as you try and handle the medication – and HOLY HELL!
“The moment you close your eyes, you can’t tell the difference between your reality and your dream.
“When you wake up you can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t.”
Grant and Chezzie went on to recall the terrifying hallucinations the medication caused, from believing there were intruders in their home to believing Chezzi had flown to London and back one morning.
“I couldn’t make a phone call without freaking him out, he’d hear voices,” Chezzi recalls.
“We had so many drug psychosis episodes where Grant would kick me out of the house because I was an imposter dressed up as Chezzi.
“I’d be locked out of the house, a crying mess, and I couldn’t call my family to tell them how bad it was.
“After three months it’s a bit of a dependence, you can’t tell what’s pain and what is dependence at that point.”
Grant suffered another injury and trip to hospital in 2019.
(Instagram)With Chezzi in charge of Grant’s medication, she’s baffled by those who manage to self-medicate.
“I would’ve thrown them down like MnMs [if I were self-medicating],” Grant admits in response.
Despite what would arguably be the hardest time in the couple’s relationship, Chezzi admits “it totally connected us”.
“Our whole existence in that period, was patient and nurse. We went everywhere together.
“As it turns out, that is not healthy.”
Grant and Chezzi have since had two kids, and a third on the way!
(Instagram)The couple then had to, years later, try to “untangle” that level of “co-dependence”.
But it’s easy to see that they’ve come out stronger than ever.
If you or anyone you know is suffering, please contact Lifeline (lifeline.org.au) on 1311 14 or visit Headspace at (headspace.org.au).
Visit Beyond Blue at (beyondblue.org.au) or call 1300 22 4636. You can also contact the Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800.
