She came so close to the grand final, but Lisa Curry says nothing beats being reunited with loved ones – especially her fiance Mark Tabone.
In a truly swoon-worthy gesture, Lisa’s husband-to-be surprised her shortly after she was evicted and revealed that her divorce papers from Grant Kenny have officially been processed.
An elated Lisa couldn’t quite believe it as she called out to her campmates: “I’m divorced!”
Here, the 54-year-old opens up about starring on the life-changing reality show, doing her kids proud and her big wedding plans!
The look of pure joy! Mark and Lisa are finally reunited.
Mark flew out and surprised you, how amazing was that?
Yeah, he’s sitting next to me right now. I have a really nice, balanced, lovely, gorgeous life at the moment and I missed him immensely.
I’m a really affectionate person and I missed the hugs and hand holding but it’s all back now. As fun as it was, it was actually really hard.
How was your reunion?
He surprised me when I was with Julia and Chris, one of the crew got me to look out to where the camp was and then all of a sudden Mark was standing there. There was a big scream, I was so excited. It was beyond excitement!
How did he cope with you away for so long?
I don’t think he coped too well, he found it really hard. He was doing all my social media for me and tried to keep really busy but we’re together 24/7 at home so it was really hard for both of us.
What will be the first thing you enjoy as a couple once you’re back home?
We’ve got to find our cows, they’ve gone on walkabout and disappeared. They’ve been impounded by the council so we have to get them back.
And then we have a lot of plans for the rest of the year. I go back to my work with Fernwood Fitness and my online weight loss programme. Then we’re going to America for Mark’s Elvis tour and then we have organise a wedding between all of that!
The gold medalist formed a close friendship with Natalie Bassingthwaighte.
You spoke quite a bit about your upcoming wedding and the complications of your divorce paper work. Did being in the jungle give you clarity on that whole situation?
Not really. Your brain switches off and you don’t have any brain space at all. As much as I tried to lie there and think about things, I couldn’t! I couldn’t think clearly and I think that’s just from the lack of food.
But I talked to Carson a lot about fashion and wedding and design, he came up with a few good ideas. I’ve got a few things in my mind so it’s all good.
Do you think it will be this year?
Probably but we haven’t decided.
What about that crazy jungle diet?
I’ve lost ten kilos, Mark’s never seen me this trim before. He said “don’t take off anymore!” So I’m trying to put on a kilo today! I haven’t really trained for 18 months. I coach people but I don’t train myself because I’ve been so in love. I just want to lie around, go out for dinner and so fun things.
It’s quite unusual for me because I was a little bit chubby coming in here which I was happy to be because of the 800 calorie a day diet. I got back into the habit of exercising while I was in the jungle so I’ll keep that up because I enjoyed it. I’ll go back to Fernwood and bootcamp, I’m onto it.
At the moment I’m just scoffing bacon and eggs with Vegemite on it.
Vegemite with bacon and eggs! This is revolutionary, we are going to try this asap. Do you spread it on the bacon or the eggs?
I put it on the toast underneath. I’ve grown up doing it ever since I was a kid.
Your kids must be so proud of you!
I had a really bad phone line to my daughter last night, I couldn’t even speak to her because she was crying so much. I said I’d call them after everything has settled down a little bit.
I hope they liked what they saw. I am who I am so it wouldn’t have been anything new to them.
What do you think the biggest takeaway is from the whole experience?
I think it’s an appreciation of our own lives. We take so much for granted and for 41 days we went without phones, computers, make-up, clothes, sleeping, warm showers – all the luxuries. It made me appreciate my life. It’s important to live life, don’t just exist but get out there and have adventures.
You made some really beautiful friendships in there
Nat was amazing, Tegan was my little jungle buba, Keira was lots of fun, Carson was a ray of sunshine, Jay was my rock and Nazeem was just funny.
Who would you like to see win the show?
Nat or Casey. I think it’s time for a queen of the jungle. I don’t mind which one wins but I guess I’m leaning a little bit towards Casey. Only because her story is so emotional and dark. She’s only young and I’d love to see her life go in leaps and bounds.
I’d love to see her fall in love. She’s talked about having a baby one day and I think to see her on the right track would be great for her.
