He’s won five AFL premierships and been touted as one of the greatest footy players of his generation, but in the end, the jungle got the better of Dermott Brereton.
Indeed the burly blonde, who became affectionately known as ‘Uncle Derm’ to his camp mates, was the fifth celebrity to exit the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle on Tuesday night, and going by his reaction, he wasn’t sad to see the back of it and get back to his normal eating habits.
“I lost 11 per cent of my body weight!” he tells Now To Love in an exclusive chat mere hours after leaving the jungle.
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Dermott, aka Uncle Dermy, made a big impression on the I’m A Celeb campers. (Image: Network Ten)
The AFL legend was nothing short of animated during his jungle stint.
Kicking off the very first week in style, Dermy made quite the impression on his fellow campers by whipping off his kit and going for a nudie run beside a waterfall.
Then there were the never-ending pranks against his Hawthorn teammate Shane Crawford, who incidentally, Dermy reckons will take out crown as King of the Jungle come season’s end.
And who could forget Gogglebox‘s Angie giving him another shiny new nickname – Dermott the DILF?
Suffice to say the 54-year-old’s comical presence will be missed by his camp mates left roughing it in the South African jungle.
WATCH: Dermott Brereton reveals ALL in a nudie run. Story continues below…
But it wasn’t all fun and games for the Aussie footballer – the jungle has been known to take a hefty physical toll on past celebs, and Dermott was in no way exempt.
Revealing that he’s lost a harrowing 11.2kgs since entering the jungle little over two weeks ago, the fit father of two said he’s been shoving his gob full of chocolates to make up for lost time.
“I bought chocolate, chips, caramelised popcorn, cheese, juice, wine gums, litres of chocolate milk, sugary fruit juices, the lot! I reckon they’ll be done within another four hours.”
And that wasn’t the only thing Brereton had to say following his I’m A Celebrity stint. Keep scrolling as we hear all the staggering impacts the jungle slog has had.
Dermott! How are you feeling since leaving the jungle?
It’s a bit of a buzz to be out I’ll be honest! The freedom’s a nice feeling, having a little bit of freedom to walk pretty well wherever you want to but it’s kind of nice to be able to walk at your own leisure.
How did all the challenges and life in the jungle impact you physically?
I lost precisely 11.2 kilos so the major challenge for me was the lack of dietary intake and that affects your system that makes you a little bit slack, lackadaisical, lacking in energy and you don’t feel like doing any exertion so I stopped working out with rocks and things by about day six or seven, I thought ‘I’ve got to conserve my energy, I cannot burn stuff up here cause I’ll burn up more than I should be doing.’
The isolation from the outside world, you kind of wonder what’s happened. There were times when I was thinking, ‘What are my kids up to, how’s the house, how are my pets, whether Donald’s built the wall, whether they’re going to allow him, whether we’ve got a new prime minister,’ you just wonder about what the world’s doing.
How demanding was the jungle physically in comparison to training for and playing AFL?
It’s incomparable. When you’re training flat out, you’re eating like a horse. I would be working so hard at maintaining that condition, I would get a loaf of bread each lunch time with light calorie fillings and low fat butter and take the crust off each end and eat the entire loaf for lunch and then I’d eat a huge dinner and a very healthy breakfast to start the day and you’re burning off the excess.
Inside the jungle, it’s a mental drain, even in the boredom aspect I can do boredom pretty well, you’re getting a minute amount of calories in and then once I learned about a week, don’t burn up any excess, you’re still not putting in enough calories for how much you’re burning off just by existing each day whether it’s a casual walk to the waterfall, a walk around the camp or just passive body movement. I weighed 100.1 kilos, I came out 88.9.
And in the interest of fairness, someone like say Justine [Schofield] or Angie [Kent], they’re 50 kilos and they’re having the same dietary intake, the exact same size as me. So whereas I’m trying to maintain a 100 kilo physique, they’re maintaining a half the size physique on the same amount of calories, so I imagine it would be more difficult for the other guys. We tried to take in a bit [extra food], we got sprung the first time and then tried to hide a bit more and then we got sprung a second time!
Who caught you sneaking extra food?
The operators sprung us all, they caught us! They sent us out to do a challenge and then when we came back to camp I had a look through my bag and I could tell somebody had gone through it. Then they sent us a note that night listing everything they’d seen in our bags which was very clever.
The ironic thing was I was carrying two health food bars, high-sustenance, high protein bars, within the tongues of my walking boots. I only put them back in my bag that day before so had I kept them on me in my shoes, I wouldn’t have had to hand them in. I could’ve eaten them in privacy in an isolated place somewhere, maybe like the toilet even though that’s not all that hygienic, I probably would’ve been prepared to risk it!
Dermott struck up some strong connections with his fellow campers. (Image: Network Ten)
We saw you had your celebratory steak, what else are you doing to recover from the physical effects the jungle experience has had on you?
This afternoon I’m just going to go to the local gym here and do a light workout and that will increase my appetite once again. But last night, on the way home to my hotel that I stayed in, I stopped off at the supermarket and bought nothing but junk food and it cost me AU $149. It’s very cheap to live here too so I bought so much rubbish it’s not funny!
Which cast mates surprised you the most?
When I saw Sam Dastyari walking up the steps when we were first revealed, I thought, ‘That’s Sam Dastyari, he’s pretty hardcore left-wing,’ And I’m nowhere hardcore right, I’m one step to the right from the middle but I can still appreciate the good aspects that the left do when I think they get it right and appreciate the righters when they get it right. And someone like Sam I thought, ‘I’m going to battle with him’ I found him the most thoroughly entertaining, highly intelligent, hospitable, conversational person I’ve met in such a long time. Being forced to live in each other’s pockets, sleeping three metres away from each other, chatting for hours upon hours to each other for two weeks, we probably packed in a year’s friendship into two weeks worth! In fact I called him back in Australia and we’re going to catch up in Melbourne soon, he’s such a good guy.
I cannot speak highly enough of Tahir [Bilgic], really liked Luke Jacobz and of course Shane has been a friend for years and then here I got to know him more even if he is a stupid little boy!
Who was the toughest camper and why?
I really loved being in there with Jacqui [Lambie] but at times I thought she’s too full-throttle for me, sometimes I just like a little out time but I made a great friendship with her.
The young lad Justin, I’m sure there’s a good soul in there somewhere but he’s a little difficult to understand on occasions, he’s an acquired taste.
We think everyone at home thought that too!
He’s an unusual young man, yeah! After 48 hours in there I thought, ‘Is he banging this on or is he the Zoolander stereotype?’ And he’s not banging it on, that’s who he is! I kind of found that I needed time away from him, I was nearing the end of my tether for how I was going to speak with him but I bit my tongue and I’m sure there’s a nice young man in there.
Who’s your favourite to win?
I’m hoping Shane will win but I also think he will win. In seasons past you’ve always had an NRL or AFL player so for Shane and I to both be in there, if we were from different clubs we’d have a point of difference but we’re in the same year from the same football club. I got the feeling that we really split our target voter base. Happy to go out with all good grace and happy to think that all those from the AFL fraternity that might’ve been voting my way might swing over and vote for Shane so hopefully that can double his tally and go all the way.
I know he genuinely loves his charity, Breast Cancer Network Australia. He’s ridden from Melbourne to Perth to raise money for them in the past, he’s run from Adelaide to Melbourne, so this is a long term affiliation with a charity that he’s wholeheartedly supported for many many years, so I hope he does well for them and continues to do well for them right to the very end and gets the final prize as well.
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