The Block’s Tanya Guccione talks about how ‘cheating scandal’ affected her life

The cheating scandal that dominated this season of The Block has taken its toll. Long after the homes sold, Tanya Guccione fears she will forever be branded a cheater.

It’s the reality TV version of Mean Girls — and at least one of the contestants of The Block is sick of being trolled as a cheat.

The faux cheating scandal that has dominated this season of a show that was once about home renovation has taken its toll on some of the contestants.

Long after the hammer has fallen and The Block homes have sold, Tanya Guccione fears she will still be tainted as a cheater.

Tanya and Vito Guccione are tired of being called cheats. Picture: Ian Currie

Along with husband Vito, Tanya got caught up in the “cheating” fiasco, where they shared an image of the building and challenge schedule for the entire season.

But what has been more shocking than the incident itself is the week-long series of episodes featuring various players on the show continually going after Tanya and Vito and their partners in crime, former Love Island twins Josh and Luke Packham, who also saw the schedule in advance.

Hosts Scott Cam and Shelley Craft confronted them, building site manager and former contestant Dan had a crack, and the producers even convinced their country music-singing first-time contestant Kirsty Lee Akers to sing My Cheating Heart at a Block dinner — one week after the scandal was unearthed.

It was followed by various scenes of players — including contestants and dobbers Ronnie and Georgia Caceres and Cam — sniggering about the performance.

It went on and on and on and on.

Josh and Luke Packham with one of their rooms.

But, as Nine has shown with its other tabloid reality hit Married At First Sight, when they are on to a winner they flog it to death, no matter the fallout for the contestants.

“I think I’m the perfect scapegoat, but I’m definitely not innocent either,” Guccione told Sunday Confidential.

“I am happy to say that I am a little bit cheeky, a bit of a rebel. I am a creative so you can’t keep this girl in line. If there is a rule, I will definitely break it but at the same time, everybody thought it was a bloody great idea until they chucked a hissy fit.”

Normally contestants are not supposed to know what rooms they are going to be working on in advance of each challenge.

The Gucciones shared the shot with Luke and Josh, and believe others were in on the scandal too.

Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie, and Georgia and Ronnie Caceres have strenuously denied using the image, but the Caceres admitted on air they knew the photo existed in week one.

“We should all take a lie-detector test and see what happens then. It is very difficult to cop it all when you know that there is more to it,” mother-of- two Tanya said.

The Block host Scott Cam.

“I guess the hard part for me is the trolling and people mentioning my children and contacting my friends and family. That has been really difficult to go through and it is not OK.

“People don’t realise that this is real life, not TV, and our lives continue. Real lives and real people get affected by it, but it is a TV show at the end of the day. They edit it however they see fit.”

Production is based in Melbourne, shot on Bronte Court in Hampton, which happens to be across the road from Shane Warne’s childhood home.

Guccione is understood to have sought the advice of Married At First Sight villain Martha Kalifatidis in dealing with the backlash.

“It feels like you are tainted,” the makeup artist said. “It feels like now you will always be known as the cheater on the block, and that is really hard to deal with when you know that it’s a TV show and that it’s so multifaceted this story, but it just happens to be me that was caught, so to speak.”

Josh Packham backed the Gucciones, saying he also believes that there is more to the story, and implicated the Cacereses in the scandal.

“Hindsight is obviously a beautiful thing,” he said. “Seeing how everything panned out and the reaction and the way it changed everything for the Block.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to be a stronger person than Luke and I if you are not going to take a look at the photo. We just weren’t strong enough to not do it, so it is a bit of a lesson for us.

“I only know my involvement, which was we had the photo, we sent it to our builder, and we got rid of the photo. We showed it to Ronnie and Georgia.

“We were pretty much aware that they went to production straight away, but it definitely didn’t stop Ronnie playing both sides, because off-camera he would come up to Luke and I to clarify what was coming up over the next couple of weeks.”

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]