Two-time Big Brother champ Reggie Sorensen’s sad confession about $250k winnings

Two-time Big Brother winner Reggie scored a $250k cash prize in 2022 – but she tells news.com.au the money was anything but life-changing.

Two-time Big Brother winner Reggie Sorensen is the second contestant to be revealed ahead of this year’s season of I’m A Celeb, premiering tomorrow night on Ten.

But while the network had rightly been teasing Sorensen as “reality royalty”, life hasn’t been easy for the Queensland mum-of-two since she won Big Brother for the second time in 2022, pocketing $250,000 in the process.

Speaking to news.com.au in December, Sorensen – who has lived with a worsening degenerative eye condition for many years – confessed the quarter-million in prize money had only served to keep her head above water.

“I feel like I’m a mouse in one of those spinning wheels … I just can’t get off this vicious circle,” she said with a sigh.

She revealed her initial hopes that the money would get her on the property ladder had proven unrealistic.

“I went to the bank to get a loan and couldn’t, because you need to borrow well over half a million dollars to buy a house on the Gold Coast, and I don’t have a job. No-one wants to employ me because of my vision. I’ve been trying to get a job, but I just can’t get any work, so I can’t get a loan,” she said.

Big Brother winner Reggie Bird at home on the Gold Coast. Photo: Tertius Pickard

“I’ve been living off the winnings, paying the rent to keep a roof over our heads. That’s where the money’s been going – on rent.

“It’s been poo to be honest. I’m not whingeing, but that’s been the reality of it. So it’s been hard.”

Sorensen is competing on I’m A Celeb in the hope of raising money for the charity Guide Dogs Australia, an organisation that she says is “close to my heart. Look, I’m gonna end up having one eventually, so if I win it, the money can help train these little puppies.”

And she doesn’t mince words when I ask how she feels about competing on a show known for its extreme challenges involving wild animals and death-defying stunts.

“I’m s**tting myself. Very, very anxious and scared,” she says.

Reggie has been a reality TV favourite for more than 20 years – but outside of television, life can be tough going.

Now she’s heading into the jungle on I'm A Celeb, and hopes it’ll lead to more TV work.

Her one hope? That if challenges involve snakes or spiders, “they put them next to me, because I’ve got no peripheral vision so I won’t see it.”

Which is another reason why Sorensen has agreed to forge ahead with I’m A Celeb despite her fears: As her vision worsens (“I’m hanging on to my little nine degrees of pinhole vision that I’ve got left”), she wants an unusual experience to “put in the memory banks for when I do lose my sight altogether.”

But her vision will present some unique challenges. Sorensen explained that her eyesight makes routine especially important – her daughter Mia helpfully reorganised their pantry recently, not realising how much it would disorientate her mother, who was accustomed to things being in a particular place. A campsite in Africa is a whole new environment to get used to.

Reggie won Big Brother season three back in 2003 …

… and repeated the feat in 2022. Picture: NIGEL WRIGHT

“When I go into new environments and don’t know where things are, that’s when it gets tricky,” she says. “I think it’ll take me a little bit to find my way around.”

Along with the once in a lifetime challenge and the potential charity windfall, Sorensen isn’t bashful about the other reason she’s signed up for the show: She hopes it will lead to more TV work. Paid work, to help keep her afloat.

“It’s just a matter of someone giving me that chance. It’s a really weird situation to be in: A lot of people go, ‘Everyone loves Reggie,’ but no one wants me,” she says.

“I’m hoping something may come of this after being in the jungle. I’m hoping.”

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! Premieres Sunday 19 January At 7.00pm on 10 and 10 Play.

Originally published as Two-time Big Brother champ Reggie Sorensen’s sad confession about $250k winnings