Michelle Bridges feels plagued by brutal Biggest Loser portrayal

Michelle Bridges has sensationally claimed her brutal portrayal on The Biggest Loser was all an act for TV drama, which still impacts her years later.

It was one of the most popular Australian reality shows of the mid-2000s.

But The Biggest Loser hasn’t been viewed as favourably in recent years, with the defunct Channel 10 series not ageing well due to the brutal training methods and emphasis on body image and rapid weight loss.

One of the show’s key trainers was Michelle Bridges, who became notorious among its more than 1 million viewers for her tough-as-nails approach with contestants.

Speaking to news.com.au in South Africa before she headed into camp on this season of Network Ten’s I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!, the fitness entrepreneur said she felt there was a “hangover” in terms of the public’s perception of her from the show, claiming the way she came across was “never me”.

Michelle Bridges starred on The Biggest Loser.

“I think this is a good reason for me to be doing this show [I’m A Celebrity], because I think there’s still very much a legacy or a hangover from my days as being a trainer on The Biggest Loser,” she said.

“A lot of people think I’m gonna walk into a room, make them give me a testimonial on what they ate last night and give me 50 burpees.

“I think they think I’m still like that. I’m nothing like that. And I never was in the first place.”

When asked if the persona was all for TV drama, Bridges responded, “Yes.”

“Some might think, ‘Oh, she’ll be in there [the jungle] ready to have a barney’,” she added. “I’m not a pushover, but I’m just not interested in [confrontation].”

At 53, Bridges feels she’s in the prime of her life.

She’s a single mother to her pride and joy, eight-year-old son Axel, is financially independent, and in the best place mentally she’s been in a long time.

But like anyone, Bridges has had to weather some serious hardship to get here.

Michelle Bridges and her son Axel Bridges Willis. Picture: Newscorp Daily Telegraph/ Gaye Gerard

Most notably, she was arrested for a DUI on Australia Day in 2020, while her then four-year-old son was in the car, and just a day later, confirmed her split from long-term partner and fellow Biggest Loser trainer, Steve “Commando” Willis.

After that, Bridges moved from Sydney out to her house in the Southern Highlands to regroup.

“I bought the place as a weekender, and then things happened, and then Covid happened, and I just went, ‘Right, we’re out of here.’ It just felt right at the time,” she said.

“And then probably within about year two, I started thinking I’d put myself out to pasture too early. No one’s coming up that driveway.

“It was amazing. And it was really good for me to just sort of pull back, just be all about Axel. But then I also got the feeling that I was quite isolated. And then once I got to the end of that time, it was like, I think I need to go back to Sydney, because it was just me and him on a farm.”

After four years of “feeling all the feels” where “no one can hear you scream”, Bridges moved back to Sydney last year.

“When you have the rug pulled out from underneath you, and suddenly your whole world changes and can change in a heartbeat, that can be through any kind of trauma or tragedy,” she said.

“But I leaned into my exercise. I was leaning into family and friends, and they’re the two things that are always at the front of your mind when you talk about importance. When people say they have something that happens to them, they realise what’s important to them, it’s always family and friends.

“And it’s just time. It’s time. It’s not trying to push it away, not trying to stuff it under the rug, because as soon as you open the door, the freaking thing turns up again.

“It’s feeling all the feels, as they say, and allowing yourself to do that and allowing yourself to be vulnerable.”

As for whether she’s ready to find love, she offers a flat-out “no” to finding it in the South African jungle.

Bridges is a contestant on this season of I’m A Celeb.

Elsewhere, Bridges said any potential partner would have to be “freaking amazing” to fit into her full life.

“It’s not something I really think about on the daily, to be honest,” she said.

“I have a pretty full life, and I have a really freaking joyful life. I love everything that I’ve created and everything that, all the decisions that I’ve made to get me to where I am right now, living in my home that I’ve purchased in Sydney. My son’s at a great school. He’s at this beautiful age.

“I’m financially independent, which for a woman to say, that is so empowering.”

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10