Between the heat of the South African jungle and a sparing diet of beans and rice, it’s no wonder the stars competing it out on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! are starting to unravel.
And who can blame them? The conditions are tough!
WATCH: Ajay Rochester opens up on her devastating back story. Story continues after video…
Barely two weeks into the 2019 season, we’ve watched former politician Sam Dastyari get candid on his marital breakdown and depression and even seen the usually tough-as-glass Jacqui Lambie reveal her devastating struggles with depression and PTSD.
And now, the latest celebrity to open up on the show is Ajay Rochester. Speaking to Gogglebox star Angie Kent in an episode this week the former Biggest Loser host revealed the incredible story of meeting her birth mother.
“My best friend and I got in the Yellow Pages and got all the Rochesters in Orange. We rang them all,” she said.
“Two years before, my best friend and her sister worked in a theatre restaurant in Sydney, and I filled in. The lady who ran it was named Kaylene. She was blonde, and we used to joke, saying ‘She could be your mother.'”
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“This photo is my birth mother and my brothers. I took this photo not knowing we were related. She was my boss at a dinner theatre I was performing in.Her name is Kaylene. She never lived long enough to have her story of me being stolen from her verified by the government. #adoption #birthmum #stolengeneration #forcedadoption” wrote Ajay. (Image: Instagram)
As fate would have it, it turns out the restaurant owner was her mother!
“I already knew her. My best friend and I were working for her.”
“At the meeting, Kaylene’s standing there looking at us thinking, ‘What are you two doing here? I’m waiting to see my daughter,'” she told a shocked Angie.
Tragically, Kaylene passed away only two years after reconnecting with the star, when Ajay was just 23.
Now, in an exclusive chat with Woman’s Day the former host of The Biggest Loser reveals the true reality of her childhood and how it’s shaped her as a mother…
How do you look back at being adopted?
“The thing is, I was part of a forced adoption in Australia. I grew up thinking my mother had just abandoned me but I now know that’s not true. When she passed, my relationship with her changed emotionally – even know she wasn’t around to see it – I had learned that she didn’t have a choice in giving me up.
I’m glad I got to learn the truth but there’s so many women out there who never got to know the truth.”
Ajay and her son Kai, 19. (Image: @ajayrochester Instagram)
How has it affected your outlook on motherhood?
“I have literally have shaped my whole life in the opposite of how I was mothered.
Not having my birth mother and then having an abusive, unloving adoptive mother, who beat me viciously. I made sure I’d never lay a hand on Kai, I was always present for him.”
Do you feel living through all this has made your relationship with your son all that more important?
“When we came to LA, I turned my back on everyone – my goal was to be there by him side, to get him through – I haven’t dated for 10 years! To be honest now I’m like… what happens now… what’s this thing called dating. That upbringing has definitely shaped me in every way; I’ve always been determined to never be that person.”
