Going into I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Australia, former AFL star Adam Cooney knew he’d struggle being away from his wife Haylea and their three children.
“My wife and I are very close,” he tells TV WEEK. “We speak on the phone about 20 times a day when we’re not with each other. The longest I’ve gone without talking to her is probably a 14-hour flight to America.”
Adam was “forced” into entering the jungle.
(Image: Supplied)Adam says Haylea “forced” him to do I’m A Celebrity – “she said it would be fun for the kids and her to watch” – but later changed her mind, getting emotional on a two-and-a-half-hour car trip from Warrnambool in Victoria.
“She cried the whole way home,” he remembers.
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Adam, 37, says his children Ash, 22, Jax, 14, and Evie, 11, couldn’t wait to see him “break down and cry” on TV, because they “very rarely see me emotional or in tears”.
Adam was emotional talking about his family.
(Image: Supplied)In the jungle, Adam did get emotional talking about Ash, Haylea’s daughter from a previous relationship, who has cerebral palsy. Adam says Ash is “pretty bubbly”, and a devoted fan of the Western Bulldogs, one of the two AFL teams he played for.
“She sits in a cheer squad most weeks, so she’s into her footy,” he says.
Adam, who now co-hosts the AFL show Armchair Experts, says his schedule lets him drop off his kids at school and pick them up, as well as coach his son’s footy team.
“I spend a lot of time with the kids – I’m very lucky.”
