Inside Grant and Chezzi Denyer’s complicated past

Amid Grant Denyer’s DWTS photo controversy, we take a look back at his complicated yet fiercely loyal 10-year marriage to wife Chezzi.

All eyes have been on Grant Denyer this week after the beloved TV host was pictured with his hand on his 22-year-old Dancing With The Stars partner’s thigh.

The married media personality angrily asserted the images were taken out of context and misleadingly plastered across New Idea magazine.

It isn’t the first time Denyer’s been the subject of salacious headlines in recent years.

Passionate response to New Idea photos

Media industry colleagues have flocked to support Denyer after a New Idea story emerged falsely suggesting the 44-year-old was having an affair.

On Thursday, Kyle Sandilands defended the I’m a Celeb star saying, “He’s like that, he’s a sweetie.”

According to Denyer and his wife of 10 years Chezzi, it was merely a “she’ll be right pat on the leg” to comfort Lily after she’d shared some personal news.

Sandilands said he believed Denyer’s assertion that the photos were “taken out of context”.

“It’s New Idea. Everyone knows everything inside it is invented rubbish,” Sandilands said on Wednesday’s Kyle and Jackie O Show.

“(Grant) is like that, he’s a sweetie.

“He is a nice guy. I give him a bit of a hard time (but he’s) super nice. Denyer and his wife Chezzi, that’s a real relationship. That’s a real love story.

“(It’s) bulls**t. Not true. I didn’t even read the story, I knew it was that much bulls**t.”

Speaking on 2Day FM’s The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin, Denyer said that he felt as though he’d “embarrassed (his) family” despite doing nothing wrong.

Grant and Chezzi both hit out at the magazine. Picture: Instagram.

Grant explained that the photos were taken shortly after he and Lily had been in a gruelling practice session together, adding that he was giving his dance partner some “fatherly advice” over a personal issue she’d divulged to him.

“We’d just been on the phone to Chezzi, we’d been FaceTiming … It had been a bit of a tough day … and Lil had a bit going on in her personal life.

“It’s not up to me to divulge what it is but I was just giving her a bit of a pep talk and fatherly advice,” he added.

“I just gave her a tap on the leg and she sort of leaned in for a bit of a hug after a chat and that’s the photo on the (New Idea) front page.”

Grant and Chezzi’s beginnings

The rock-solid duo and podcast co-hosts actually met and started dating while Chezzi was still married.

In the first episode of their podcast It’s All True, they revealed they were forced to date in secret given Grant, 43, was in a relationship and Chezzi, 40, was already hitched.

The two met while working together on Sunrise in 2005, and were caught by surprise by their attraction after clashing on several occasions at work.

Grant and Chezzi revealed they didn’t get along at first. Picture: Supplied.

In fact, according to Grant, they “hated each other” until one pivotal moment.

“There was a moment, there was a spark, there was an explosion inside of me and I was like ‘whoa!’ and the game changed, and my world stopped and love just flooded in,” he said, describing how he brushed hands with his now-wife and their energy towards each other shifted.

“I was like, I felt this tingle from head to toe come over me. I realised I cannot live without this woman and I need her in my life forever.”

Their new-found attraction to each other was “problematic”, Grant said, with Chezzi being married and Grant in another relationship.

“Are you ready to declare this?” Grant asked his wife before dropping the bombshell.

“This is full on,” Chezzi responded, before Grant revealed: “You were married, I was in another relationship … That took a long time to navigate.”

“It was a rough journey at the start. It wasn’t like what you see in the movies,” Chezzi agreed.

Going on to explain that they had to “hide” their love, Grant revealed when whispers around the office began to circulate, it led to speculation in the media.

“It felt naughty, it felt wrong, but so right at the same time,” he said.

Past struggles with addiction

While appearing on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! earlier this year, Denyer told his campmates about his past pain medication addiction after a 2008 accident at a monster truck event.

Revealing he was taken down a “dark path”, he said the addiction took a toll on his and Chezzi’s relationship.

Grant Denyer appearing on I'm A Celeb earlier this year. Picture: Twitter.

“I decided to crash off it which was … when I went missing …” he told Abbie Chatfield, Alli Simpson and Toni Pearen.

“Mate, I pelted eggs at her [Chezzi] one night. I cracked it for some reason. I was hungry and was in pain and was confused and I just started throwing eggs at her.” he said.

“She doesn’t deserve this but you just can’t stop.”

It wasn’t the first time Denyer has opened up about his past drug addiction.

On the couple’s podcast, It’s All True, Denyer explained how he was hooked on the painkillers while recovering from the accident.

“Holy hell, do you remember all the mad sh*t that went on?” Grant said to Chezzi on the podcast. “The moment you close your eyes, you can’t tell the difference between reality and your dreams. As soon as you close your eyes, you go into your worst nightmares.

“The things that you’re afraid of the most are the first things that happen the moment you fall asleep and you start dreaming.”

Grant Denyer with wife Chezzi and daughters Sailor and Scout. The couple welcomed third daughter Sunday in February. Picture: Supplied.

Detailing one incident, Denyer said: “I remember waking up thinking there was a home invasion and I thought that Chezzi was being attacked, being raped in the apartment.

“I’m trying to find these guys who are attacking you and raping you. I’m like, ‘Where are they? I know they’re here! Where are they?’”

The couple said the strong medication Denyer was prescribed during his recovery was “the worst part of the injury by far”.

“We had so many drug psychosis episodes where Grant would kick me out of the house because he would say I was an impostor dressed up as Chezzi,” his wife said. “He’d be like, ‘I don’t believe you. Get out of the house!’

“I’d get locked out of the house and I’d be a crying mess.”

The couple recalled another shocking incident that took place when they were living in an apartment on Castlereagh St in the Sydney CBD.

“I remember one night I left the house in my undies to go and get some scotch,” Denyer said.

Denyer’s addiction came after a monster truck accident in 2008. Picture: Supplied.

Chezzi added: “He said, ‘I want some scotch, you f***ing b**ch.’ I was like, ‘I beg your pardon?’ He said, ‘Listen, you f***ing b**ch, I am going to get some scotch. Where’s my ginger ale?’

“He came out and said, ‘Well if you’re not going to get it for me, fine, f**k you,’ and he grabbed the keys and walked straight out the door,” Chezzi said.

Denyer stressed it was the withdrawals talking and he would never normally speak to his wife like that.

“I just wasn’t in a place where I could understand my own actions or behaviours,” he said.

Chezzi spent three hours searching the streets for him before she found him in the fire escape of their apartment building.

Grant and Chezzi hit back at ‘cheating’ story

Both Grant and Chezzi blasted New Idea for the insinuation that something untoward happened after the magazine wrote of “Chezzi’s heartbreak”.

Responding to the scandalous front cover, Chezzi said that Grant’s DWTS: All Stars partner Lily is “like an adopted daughter” to them.

The photos showed Grant and Lily walking together in workout gear before sitting down and embracing, with Denyer’s hand on the 22-year-old dancer’s thigh.

“What the actual hell is this front page crap New Idea,” Chezzi wrote on Instagram, launching into a rant against the magazine.

On the next slide, she revealed the photographer who took the photos had actually apologised to the couple for the images being “taken out of context”.

“Right before this little ‘she’ll be right’ leg pat … I was on the phone with them also consoling Lilz,” Chezzi wrote, explaining that Cornish is a close friend of the couple’s.

“Lilz is like our adopted daughter. We grew extremely close during her month long stay with us here in Bathurst. We absolutely adore her!”

She went on to describe the photo as “gross and really mean”.

“Poor Lilz doesn’t deserve this defamation of character … New Idea you should be ashamed.”

Chiming in on his own profile, Grant called the article “savage”.

“My wife and I are used to fabricated stories from these type of magazine, we’ve had a life of it but for Lily, she’s a 22 yo kid!!

“This kind of treatment is brutally unfair and disgusting.”

He concluded: “I’m a Dad of 3 girls. And if any friend is having a bad day or a tough time in their life, I’m going to be there for them. End of story.”