Queensland couple Mel and Dave haven’t found it easy watching themselves on House Rules.
“Dave and I are very competitive,” Mel tells TV WEEK. “I think it does come across as arrogant, but we’re not arrogant people.
“We went in wanting to win and that was the only thing we wanted to do – win.”
Mel and Dave ‘cringe’ over their on-screen appearance.
She admits that some of their strategic moves have been “cringeworthy” to watch.
Some of those strategic moves include giving eliminated contestants Leigh and Kristie a bonus room to complete in the hopes that they would fail, and working poorly with Chiara and David on their shared zones.
“You have to be in our position to understand it,” the 33-year-old adds. “We have a one-in-six chance at $355,000. It’s not the money – it’s what the money could do for us.”
Mel and Dave are parents to two boys: Westin, five, and three-year-old Billy. They went on House Rules hoping to make enough money for Dave to give up his fly-in, fly-out job.
The reason it means so much to Dave was revealed on the show last week when he talked about the death of his dad, Ken.
“My father was a very hardworking man,” Dave, 34, explains. “He worked away [from home] for the transport industry for much of our childhood.
“It was common for him to do 70-hour weeks and never come home. He died working away when I was in my early twenties. I’ve got children and I don’t want to be working away.”
Mel and Dave’s drive to win has seen them come under attack on social media. Mel says it’s been “very hurtful”.
“It’s mind-blowing the disgusting things people can write,” she says. “I delete them and move on.”
House Rules airs Monday, 7.30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, Channel Seven
