Aussie TV host broke and working odd jobs to earn cash to fly back to the US

Former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester fled Hollywood to escape Covid lockdowns. Now she’s still stuck in Australia and has turned to odd jobs in a desperate attempt to get back there.

Once the host of one of Australia’s top reality TV shows, Ajay Rochester is broke and working odd jobs to get the funds to fly home to the United States.

Based in Los Angeles, the former Biggest Loser host put her career as a casting director on hold during the pandemic to hunker down in Sydney with her son, Kai.

The American Embassy in Sydney remains closed, meaning she spent the last of her savings to fly to Fiji to sort her Green Card paperwork earlier this month.

“I am broke,” Rochester told Confidential.

“I have lived off all of my savings over the past few years being literally stuck in Australia and my work is in America.

Ajay Rochester has taken to online apps to score odd jobs to raise money to get home to the US after two years in Australia during Covid. Picture: Tim Hunter

“You are made to feel like a loser if you are pay cheque to pay cheque … it is expensive and the money has run out.

“There is broke, as in living in a tent, and there is broke as in I have been paying two rents broke. But broke is broke.”

She added that her Green Card does not take effect until she lands in the US.

“What is normally a three month (visa) process has been nearly three years,” she said.

“I left America thinking I would be back in three months and then lockdown after lockdown happened and I got stuck here.”

Host TV presenter Ajay Rochester with Adro Sarnelli, winner of 2006 reality TV series The Biggest Loser.

Rochester takes to AirTasker to raise money to get to the US after two years in Australia during Covid. Picture: TikTok/@ajayrochester

Rochester’s US work visa ran out while she has been here so she could not work remotely.

The 53-year-old needs $1500 each to pay for her and her son to fly back to LA, and has been using online apps to score odd jobs, from hosting kids birthday parties to working in a cookie factory, cat-sitting, face painting and cleaning homes.

She has been sharing the highs and lows of the money raising journey with followers on TikTok.

“At the end of the day, adulting is tough,” she said.

“I have been broke many times. I am not afraid of doing crazy jobs. People do make you feel ashamed but I am not afraid of hard work, you dig in and you do it and there is nothing shameful about paying your way.”

Rochester hosted The Biggest Loser on Channel 10 for four seasons from 2006.

In 2019, Rochester appeared in the fifth season of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! where she was dubbed the “queen of TMI”.

While in the jungle with the other contestants, she revealed at the time she hasn’t had sex in nine years.