The dark side of My Kitchen Rules: Kelly Ramsay reveals she’s broke and has been bullied since show’s finale

MY KITCHEN Rules villain Kelly Ramsay has lashed out at the treatment she received from the hit reality series, saying her life is in tatters for the sake of entertainment.

MY KITCHEN Rules villain Kelly Ramsay has lashed out at the treatment she received during and after Channel 7’s hit reality series, revealing she is broke, has moved back into her parents’ home and continues to be taunted by the Australian public.

In an exclusive interview with news.com.au, Kelly said the high-pressure environment of reality television had taken its toll, revealing she was admitted to hospital for “exhaustion” at the weekend.

According to Kelly, doctors held her overnight on Sunday to keep a close watch on the Perth resident, fearing she may have bleeding on the brain.

The hospital wristband worn by Kelly Ramsay during her recent stay.

She woke up at 1:30am with an extreme migraine and her mum took her to Swan District hospital in Perth. She was then transferred via ambulance to Royal Perth Hospital.

“I was out and about, I’d had a few drinks but I went home and woke up with a migraine,” she told news.com.au.

“I think I was just physically and mentally exhausted. They admitted me, they wanted to make sure I didn’t have bleeding on the brain due to loss of vision, an extreme migraine and vomiting.

“They said it was probably exhaustion and stress.”

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News.com.au contacted Channel 7 for comment on Kelly’s hospital stay but the network refused to comment on the matter.

The former contestant, who along with teammate Chloe James divided viewers in this year’s season of the top-rating show, told news.com.au the negativity was “still staining our reputation”.

Chloe and Kelly lost to South Australia mums Bree and Jessica before an audience of 3.7 million Australians in the show’s finale on April 29.

The final three teams in the My Kitchen Rules finale (from left): Kelly and Chloe, Jess and Bree and Helena and Vicki.

The duo was portrayed as the knifing, bullying pair of this season, with angry viewers threatening to boycott the show after it was revealed they made it through to the highly anticipated grand final. But Ramsay blamed the editing, believing the show portrayed the pair in an excessively negative light.

“I think they took it too far this year with the whole villain thing. All the show is real essentially, it’s a lot of editing and creative characters. Things are often taken out of context,” she said.

“You never saw us cry when anybody left, you never heard anything positive come out of our mouths. We said a lot of positive things and we cried on several occasions when people left the show. By taking that out it made us look like super-negative people”.

But now, less than two weeks since the finale episode, Ramsay said she was struggling to cope with the notoriety.

“Some days you don’t cope with fame. I’m finding it harder now that we’ve lost.

“I thought all this negativity would follow with this great ending, that we were going to win and follow our dreams. Now we’ve lost it’s weighing a lot harder on us.

“We have no money, I have people trolling my work to fire me, I was in hospital on Sunday with exhaustion. It cuts your whole soul, it cuts your being.

“I went out for drinks and someone behind me said, ‘There’s that c*** from that show. Oh my God look at that face.’ It’s constant, I had it on the bus yesterday.”

Kelly’s teammate Chloe is “devastated by the whole thing”.

Kelly during My Kitchen Rules’ Instant Restaurant round.

Kelly thought the pair’s portrayal would change as the series continued, but “unfortunately that never happened”.

“We never bullied anybody. If anything we made more friends than most other contestants.”

A Channel 7 spokeswoman said the network “does not condone bullying and at no time during the production of My Kitchen Rules was a complaint made regarding bullying.”

According to Kelly the pair was offered a counsellor by the network, but “that doesn’t help you find a job or pay your mortgage”.

Now they’re facing financial hardship, with Kelly admitting she was moving back in with her parents to ease the economic burden.

“I’ve got Chloe’s wedding (she’s getting married in New York in June to long-term partner Luke), and I’m having to pay for that, moving back home with my parents, I think it all just got a bit too much.”

According to Kelly, Channel 7 had “thrown their hands up”.

“I don’t know whose responsibility that is now but we’re having troubles finding work because of the show.”

My Kitchen Rules 2014 grand finalists Chloe and Kelly.

Since late March, Kelly has been working as a trainee in the kitchen at Perth restaurant The Trustee alongside chef Michelle Forbes.

But according to Kelly, her time is about to be cut short, as she can’t continue to live on an apprentice’s wage.

“My parents are supporting me at the moment and I don't know how much I want to push the friendship.

“It’s very hard because this week a number of people have come into my work and said I should be fired for my behaviour on MKR. We still get abusive emails.”

And as for Chloe?

“She’s really struggling financially as well. I know it’s stressing her out, she doesn’t like that we’re being called bullies and making up stories.

“We’re devastated by the whole thing, both of us have days that are worse than others. More than anything we’re worried about our future. We had a dream and that’s taken away. Having the reputation of these monster villains is hard. We’re going to be carrying that shadow with us, all created for entertainment.”

Originally published as The dark side of My Kitchen Rules: Kelly Ramsay reveals she’s broke and has been bullied since show’s finale