SAS Australia: Roxy Jacenko reveals brutal truth about helicopter stunt

SAS Australia opened with a death-defying helicopter stunt – but one contestant has revealed there’s a lot you didn’t see on TV.

SAS Australia started with a bang during Monday’s premiere episode, as terrified celebrity contestants were made to complete an extreme helicopter stunt.

One by one, contestants boarded a helicopter that flew out over a lake. They then had to free fall backwards roughly 8m into the freezing water below, before making their own way back to shore.

It was an extreme stunt that remarkably, all 17 contestants successfully completed. But Roxy Jacenko – who quit the show just hours after the helicopter fall – told Kyle and Jackie O this morning that it hadn’t played out quite as it did on television.

“First to face the extreme 8m fall is ironwoman Candice Warner,” a voiceover had told viewers, while Jacenko was shown jumping second.

In fact, Jacenko claimed it was she who went first – and under much scarier circumstances than her fellow contestants.

“I was the first one who fell out, so they obviously edited it so Candice was first and I was second. But it was double the height when I fell out,” she said.

Scenes aired during the premiere show Warner preparing to jump:

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Candice Warner gets ready to jump.

And Schapelle Corby:

Schapelle Corby’s leap.

And Jacenko, from what does appear to be a greater height than her fellow competitors:

Roxy Jacenko's massive fall from the chopper.

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Jacenko said she knew the impact of her fall would spell the end of her time in the show, just six weeks after breaking her pelvis and hip in a horseriding accident.

“That was when I basically buggered myself – the impact of hitting that water. I wasn’t winded, it was a pure impact,” she said.

“Then we had to swim, and what you don’t see on TV was the swim was a really long way – probably about 10 Olympic pool laps (back to shore).”

Jacenko’s early exit from the show had some viewers asking questions about her recent injuries – a social media pile-on that had her angrily defending herself on Instagram last night, posting photos taken from hospital after the horseriding accident.

She said she made it clear to the SAS Australia team that she couldn’t push herself too hard given her recent injuries – but the scene never made it to air, leaving many viewers to questioned why she’d gone on the show in the first place.

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Roxy Jacenko: ‘That was when I buggered myself.’

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“The show is not reality, it’s factual observation. But the shame of it is for me, there was a scene for quite a number of minutes where I spoke in that interrogation room, explaining that my aim was to show up and do the best I could given my circumstances – a fractured pelvis and hip six weeks before filming – and they were actually really good (about it).”

Ultimately, Jacenko said her decision to quit just six hours into the season was about putting her health first, three years after battling breast cancer.

“I’ve had cancer. I don’t want to be in a position where I put my health at risk any more. I fractured my pelvis and hip six weeks before filming – I just couldn’t do it,” she told Kyle and Jackie O.

SAS Australia continues 7.30pm tonight on Seven.