If you don’t know who Aussie comedian and radio star Tanya Hennessy is yet, you’re about to find out.
The hilarious 34-year-old has just been dropped into the South African jungle on the new season of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, joining a cast of colourful characters who we cannot wait to see battle through the show’s jaw-dropping challenges.
Missed the cast announcement? Catch up here.
But back to Tanya.
The Newcastle native studied communications and acting after high school, but got her big break thanks to her hilarious viral videos, all filmed on an iPhone.
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Her “Realistic Makeup Tutorial” (you can watch it in the player above), featuring a blunt eyeliner pencil and makeup brushes that have never been washed (um, same), has been watched more than nine million times on Facebook.
As well as regular TV and radio gigs, she also released her own makeup line last year, and it sold out instantly.
And by her side through all of this has been her boyfriend, Tom Poole.
Tanya and Tom (OMG, alliteration! Cute) have been dating for about five years.
(Credit: Instagram)Tanya is incredibly open about the pair’s seven-year age difference – she is 34 and he is 27 – but regularly gushes about her beau in interviews, plus she loves to share cute couple selfies of her and Tom with her 196,000 Instagram followers.
The pair started out in a long distance relationship, but now live together in Melbourne.
“I reckon I probably wouldn’t be here without him,” Tanya told Stellar in 2018.
“That man has escalated me to a point where I feel fearless in creating because he’s always going to be there if things fall apart.”
Cute!
(Credit: Instagram)Tom is Tanya’s rock and the reason she is able to do what she does so well.
“He’s escalated me to a point where I feel so loved, I know whatever happens, he’s going to be there to catch me and that’s an exceptional thing for a relationship,” Tanya told Who in 2018.
“He’s very funny, too, and he’s also hot. There’s something to be said, you know, and I am seven years older than him and just livin’ the cougar life!”
Tanya forced her boyfriend to wear matching Christmas sweaters in 2019 and we’re totally here for it.
(Credit: Instagram)
Tom is always there to support Tanya when she needs it.
(Credit: Instagram)Tanya says the pair plan to get married – though it seems Tom is in no rush!
“We’ve been together for almost five years. I’m like ‘When are we going to get married? I just want to be engaged to him because he’s the best person alive. I’ve said to him ‘I’ll propose to you’ and he was like ‘No, let me do it’ And I’m like, ‘Well when, b-tch? When?” she joked to Who last year.
“He’s great. He’s the rock that keeps it all together because I’m a freaking crazy person. He’s like the strength behind it all. I feel so bad, because I travel so much. But he gets it and it takes a really supportive partner to support this lifestyle. It’s crazy.”
Awwwww <3
(Credit: Instagram)She expects the hardest thing about going on I’m A Celeb won’t be the gross eating challenges or death-defying tasks involved in the show, but rather, being away from Tom for so long .
“Not being able to talk to Tom, who is like everything,” she told 10 Daily when asked about what she would miss the most in the jungle.
“I talk to him about everything. Not being able to talk to him every day, I didn’t think it was going to be that hard but…” she said.
WATCH BELOW: Tanya Hennessy on the difference between people aged 18 and 30. Story continues after video.
And if you’re wondering if Tom imparted any words of wisdom to his beloved before she left for South Africa, he certainly had some advice to dish out.
“He said ‘don’t embarrass the family’,” Tanya joked.
“I was like … I will! I was like, ‘You can’t tell me anything! I’m a feminist. How dare you.'”
I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here airs at 7.30pm on Channel Ten from Sundays to Thursdays.
