‘Three men broke in’: Erin Holland reveals terrifying home invasion

Erin Holland has revealed three men broke into her Brisbane home while she slept alone, leaving her feeling vulnerable and powerless.

Erin Holland has revealed three men broke into her Brisbane home while she slept alone on Boxing Day in a home invasion that left her feeling vulnerable and powerless.

The presenter and model signed up to Channel 7 reality show SAS Australia early this year in a bid to regain her confidence following the home invasion, which came when cricketer husband Ben Cutting was away over Christmas due to the Big Bash League’s Covid bubble.

With the unexpected separation and the recent loss of a family member causing bouts of insomnia, Holland had taken medication prescribed by a doctor on Christmas night to help her sleep and woke up to find the side gate of their home in Hawthorne, in Brisbane’s east, was open.

Erin Holland competes on SAS Australia season two. Picture: Jeremy Grieve

“Ben watched the footage back and said ‘Babe, you got robbed by three men’,” Holland said.

“I didn’t wake up, which is in some ways a good thing but it also made me feel even more vulnerable.”

The thieves stole Cutting’s road bike and a few belongings from under their house.

Holland, a former Miss World Australia, broke down while she spoke about the incident during an interrogation on SAS on Tuesday night.

“As someone who lived alone for most of my adult life in Sydney and felt independent it actually really affected me. It took the interrogation to really realise how much it affected me,” Holland said.

“It kind of came out in that sleep-deprived state of exhaustion.”

“I couldn’t sleep after that. I’d always felt independent on my own. All of a sudden it just completely changed for six months.”

“It (the show) was about getting power back and feeling capable again. That was the thing that was taken from me the most in that moment.”

But Holland was disappointed on Tuesday night’s episode when, during a brutal physical challenge, she was singled out and told to carry actor Dan Ewing around the course.

With the rest of the recruits suffering physically until she completed the task, Holland eventually called it quits to spare them and was forced to leave the reality show.

Ben Cutting and Erin Holland live in Hawthorne in Brisbane’s east. Picture: Instagram

“It was actually really stressful; there was no part of me that wanted to leave,” she said.

“To be given an insurmountable task – which even if I trained for 6 months I wouldn’t have been up to that level – was really frustrating.”

“It was 10 to 15 minutes. I really gave it a go. I got him 10 metres and my back totally gave out. I said ‘Can I carry him another way’ – I could’ve dragged him or a piggy back – and he said ‘No, you have to fireman carry’.

“I always said, I’m here to push myself but I won’t let my ineptitude cause anyone else any more pain. That was the only thing that would have made me quit.

“I guess you just wonder why it was given to me. But it truly was the ultimate test. I don’t begrudge Ant (Middleton) or anything because, like he said to me, the battlefield is unpredictable and unfair, it doesn’t see gender and you can do it or you can’t.”

Holland signed up for the show shortly before her wedding early this year and had nine weeks to train.

While she respected that every recruit was treated equally, the packs each contestant carries weighs 20kg, which is more than one third of Holland’s body weight.

She said she was “disappointed” to not be able to push herself further in the show.

“It’s been difficult to live with that for the last couple of months,” Holland said.

“The thing I’ve been most worried about is how that’s perceived and hoping I didn’t come out looking like that typical weak beauty queen, model, presenter, whatever you want to call it.

“I’m really proud I gave it a red hot crack and had I not been given that task at that moment I think I had a few more days left in me.”