Bernard Tomic to star in fourth season of I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!

TENNIS bad boy Bernard Tomic will add reality star to his resume on Channel 10’s I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! But he says money isn’t the reason why he’s doing it.

BERNARD Tomic is hoping for redemption in the jungle.

The bad boy of Aussie tennis is the headline as the fourth season of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! gets underway tonight.

“It is not for the money. I am doing this because it is something I always wanted to do in my life,” Tomic told News Corp, sitting down exclusively before heading into the jungle.

“This is reality, nothing can hide, this is 24 hour cameras and you are on your own and then the public can see who you really are. They (people) know me as this tennis player that is crazy and has done this or that or has problems. Hopefully I get the chance to change their image about me on this show and that is one of the reasons I’m doing it.”

MORE: Tomic’s former coach says his millions will slip away as fast as his ranking has

Look out: we’re about to see a whole new side of Bernie. Picture: Nigel Wright

The 25-year-old could spend up to six weeks in the jungle competing on the show with a bunch of well-known Australians, including retired three-time premiership winning AFL player Josh Gibson.

The full cast will be revealed when the series debuts on Channel Ten tonight.

“There are so many things that are a plus for me. So for me it was an important thing for me to do this,” he said. “

The other big motivation for Tomic for taking part is supporting charity, something he admits he hasn’t done a lot of to date.

Whoever wins the series secures $100,000 for their chosen charity. For Tomic that is Ronald McDonald House.

“That is on the top of my mind, to win for them,” he said. “I haven’t done much charity work in my career so far so for me it is something I want to do for the next decade to half decade and it is a perfect way to start here and try and win for my charity I have chosen. For me it is going to be an amazing experience regardless of what anybody has said over the last month. I am happy I am doing this.”

Of the charity, he continued: “I chose Ronald McDonald House because obviously it is helping sick kids and their families. Kids don’t know about money, they don’t care, they don’t know and we as adults have a responsibility. It is meaningful to do something like this and to play for them.”

Tomic says the experience is something he’s always wanted to do. Picture: Nigel Wright.

But he won’t be showering naked. Picture: Nigel Wright

Tomic is relaxed and very polite, genuinely excited at being in Africa for the first time.

In real life, away from the tennis court, he doesn’t at all live up to the image of the arrogant party boy sportsman he admits he’s earned over recent years.

Just this month he made headlines when after not qualifying for the Australian Open he bragged of counting money, saying: “I count my millions”.

“I regretted it about five minutes after,” he said of the controversial statement. “I think I just used it as a defence mechanism after the match I lost and I was really wanting to prove to qualify for the Australian Open and unfortunately I lost and in the heat of the moment within that minute I was walking back to the locker rooms they came towards me and I was not in the right frame of mind. I used it as a defence mechanism, like a turtle that goes back into its shell.”

Just last year he claimed he was “bored” on the court.

“It is one thing in Australia people don’t like when you talk about money or what you have and when you brag and somehow I seem to always find that, which maybe isn’t the smart thing to do.”

His many other controversies include famously bragging that he never loved tennis and saying he only ever put in 50% per cent effort in his career.

Police in 2012 fined Tomic three times in one day for traffic offences and was later put on a 12 month good behaviour bond. In 2015 he was arrested in Miami and charged with resisting arrest and trespassing. The charges were later dropped.

“I think there is this image about me that I am this bad sort of sportsman but I’m not,” Tomic said when quizzed on his reputation.

“There are unreal expectations of me, to win 20 Grand Slams or whatever and obviously I have done a bit of stuff throughout the years where I’ve said wrong things and done wrong things and had many incidents and obviously that is not the best thing I could have done. They’ve caught me at the wrong times and they are really good when they catch you. There isn’t a rule book. I am happy I am doing this because they can’t control it and it is just you, you are open and you enjoy the show.”

Tomic pictured at the Aus Open qualifying, where he lost in three sets against Lorenzo Sonego. Picture: Michael Klein

Tomic and his fellow campmates will live off basic food rations of beans, rice and oats while competing in various physical challenges to secure extra food.

“It is going to be super tough,” he said. “I am scared of everything. I am scared of heights and spiders and snakes and cockroaches. Ugh. I am probably not the best person with anything. It will be mind over matter. I think the mind is going to have to be powerful for me. There are going to be challenges in there that are going to be super tough that maybe some of us can’t do.”

Tucker Chewsday’s, in which celebrities are forced to eat gross specialities like offal and various insects, will also be tough for Tomic.

“That is messed up,” he sighed. “I am not the best person with anything on the show, with having snakes on you or cockroaches or spiders, it is the worst but it is going to be something I am going to have to push and try to do. It is a challenge so I will see.”

Known for being hot headed and speaking his mind, Tomic hopes to keep his cool regardless of the pressures the celebrities face.

In past seasons, contestants have come to blows over anything from food portions to chores like who cleans the toilet.

“In the real world I go straight at it,” he said. “But I am not in there to make problems with people, to make arguments, they are all obviously successful well-spoken people. I am in there to have a good experience, to change my life and meet new people along the way and enjoy the time. If there is conflict in there, I am probably going to walk away. Obviously it is going to be tough and challenging and stuff so maybe I will get super made but I will try to avoid it as much as I can.”

As for his love life, Tomic is newly single after recently splitting from model girlfriend, Emma Blake- Hahnel.

A jungle romance isn’t out of the question either.

“I don’t have a girlfriend, I stopped a few months back, we were together for maybe a year and a half,” he declared. “Now I am single and I don’t know, we will see. Whatever happens, I know there are cameras on you 24 hours a day so there are limits.”

With cameras on them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Tomic said he won’t be showering naked.

“Can you shower naked? That is weird. If you are in your underwear, that is fine, naked is weird.”

**The journalist is in South Africa covering I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! as a guest of Channel Ten.

Originally published as Bernard Tomic to star in fourth season of I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!