I’m A Celeb: Ajay Rochester reveals how she became homeless

Former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester has spilled to her I’m A Celeb campmates on the “years of hell and torture” that left her homeless.

Former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester has broken down in tears on I’m A Celeb after admitting her Centrelink scandal was the lowest point in her life.

Rochester, 49, abruptly left Australia for the United States after pleading guilty to welfare fraud in 2009.

“It was four years of hell and torture. I destroyed my career. So I literally left Biggest Loser destitute, with no one wanting to hire me,” she explained to fellow campmates, former politicians Jacqui Lambie and Sam Dastyari, during Wednesday night’s episode.

Lambie and Dastyari listened to Rochester

Rochester described how she “hadn’t noticed” the extra money in her account while hosting the Ten show.

“I’d been on the single parent pension. So just as I got Biggest Loser, I did my taxes, I noticed. I hadn’t noticed, I thought I might have been overpaid,” she said, adding that she’d called Centrelink and paid back the money after being told to do so.

“I got a letter a few months after, I think six months after I started Biggest Loser, saying Centrelink were going to take me to court for fraud,” she said.

Ajay Rochester flanked by trainers Michelle Bridge and Shannan Ponton during the 2009 series of The Biggest Loser.

Rochester wound up pleading guilty to 23 counts of welfare fraud in 2009 and paid back $14,000.

Although she escaped a criminal conviction, the TV presenter was left destitute, and relying on house-sitting other peoples’ homes with her then-10-year-old son in order to keep a roof over their heads.

“I had $7.11 to my name. I was literally homeless,” she cried to her campmates.

“I emailed almost everyone I knew and begged for money, I just had no other choice.”

Rochester became emotional as she told her story.

In just a few short days in the South African jungle, Rochester has already delivered quite a few bombshells.

On the first episode of this season, she made a jaw-dropping confession about her sex life, claiming she’d had to “reclaim” her virginity after going “nine years” without sex.

During Monday night’s episode, Rochester slammed former Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges, branding her attitude towards tackling obesity as “judgmental” and “discriminatory”.

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! continues tonight at 7.30pm on Channel 10