Block stars lift lid on explosive cheating scandal

It was the biggest scandal in Block history – and caused huge uproar on set. Now, two contestants have addressed a major rumour about the drama.

Two of the contestants from the most scandalous season in The Block’s history have opened up about the drama that engulfed the show.

Kirsty Lee Akers and Jesse Anderson confirmed the 2021 controversy – which saw their co-stars Tanya and Vito Guccione accused of “cheating” – was all real, and that that there was actually even more to the story.

“When we watched The Block at home … I think they left a lot of drama out,” Jesse told the Daily Mail.

“If they left everything in that season, they wouldn’t have had any building in there as well. We tried our best to avoid it everyday. But there was lots left out.”

Kirsty also confirmed that “it definitely wasn’t made-up drama.”

Kirsty and Jesse with Block host Scott Cam.

The controversy started early in the season, when contestants Tanya and Vito and Josh and Luke were implicated in circulating a top-secret photo of the show’s production schedule. The photo threw the whole season into disarray, as producers wiped the entire production schedule and started over. Anger from viewers and their fellow contestants never really abated, but throughout, Tanya stuck to her story: The photo was sent to her by a mysterious tradie, and she’d never wanted it in the first place.

Tanya was accused of cheating early in the season.

Given one last opportunity to come clean she reiterated her earlier story, even producing a text message conversation with the mysterious tradie she claimed sent her the photo. However, she still seemed unclear on the timeline of events, telling producers the texts were sent in “May … no, sorry – February.”

But twins Josh and Luke had a very different story during the finale, shown behind the scenes deciding to finally come clean in their final sit-down interview.

Josh then revealed the origins of the scandal dated back to the very first week of filming for The Block. Using the bathroom in the show’s production office, Josh and Tanya came across the schedule on a whiteboard – and Tanya asked him to stand guard while she took a photo of it on her phone.

“I was shocked and I definitely didn‘t want to take it, but I wasn’t going to say no, and then cause some sort of friction,” he said.

The whiteboard that sparked all the drama.

The brothers said that as the Block crisis exploded, Tanya and Vito “refused to come forward,” instead concocting the story about a tradie sending them the photo.

“We are trying to protect Tanya and Vito because they have a family and we care about that. That weighs a lot on our conscience, but for me to come forward and say my involvement in it, I have to implicate Tanya. I don‘t like doing that but I have to say the truth now, if not I am going to regret it. I don‘t want to hold on to a lie for the rest of my life,” said Josh.

The last-minute confession made for awkward scenes as all the couples headed to their final pre-auction meeting, with Tanya first fuming that Josh and Luke dobbed her in – and insisting she would’ve told the truth if she knew they were going to come clean.

The twins came clean in the finale.

“I look like a bigger idiot – I would have said the truth as well. I would have liked to have been given the heads up or the same opportunity because now I am here in this position saying the jig is up,” she said as she travelled to the meeting with husband Vito.

An overwhelmed Tanya broke down as she joined the meeting, and in a to-camera interview, she finally uttered the words that had eluded her all season: “I am sorry, I am truly sorry. Yes, I took the photograph.”

“I don’t think anybody is as embarrassed or as disappointed as me,” she continued. “I am not a stupid woman but I did a stupid thing.”