Frankie Muniz reveals huge future plans after ‘life-changing’ I’m A Celeb stint

Frankie Muniz is fresh off a “life-changing” stint on Australia’s I’m A Celebrity, and he’s revealed the first major step he made after leaving the jungle.

Frankie Muniz could soon call Australia home.

The Hollywood star, who voluntarily left I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! Sunday night, started looking at real estate in Sydney once he was handed his phone back at the weekend.

Muniz, 38, who lives in the US state of Arizona, unexpectedly tapped out of the South African jungle after a three-week stint. He explained that he was overcome with guilt for not being present enough with his family, including wife Paige Price and their three-year-old son, Mauz.

While he’s not sure what the future holds just yet, Muniz wants to take a step back from work as a professional race car driver so he can focus on his loved ones, and is considering a potential move to Australia, which he last visited back in 2002.

“I was already looking at real estate last night,” Muniz told news.com.au.

“I was just checking it out. But I have more friends now that live in Sydney than in the States.”

Frankie Muniz with wife Paige and their three-year-old son, Mauz.

He continued, “I definitely plan on taking a step back. I have worked basically every day since I was eight, so for 30 years.

“What I want to do is just ask my wife what she wants to do, and do that, because for eight years that we’ve been together, she’s really just done what I’m doing.

“She helps me with everything, even while I was gone. She was selling sponsorship for my races this year, and she’s doing contracts, and it’s not what she signed up for. She does it because she loves me. So I just want to say, ‘But wait, what do you want to do? Let’s do it.’”

Muniz, who shot to fame in 2000 in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, decided to leave I’m A Celeb in emotional scenes after receiving a gushing letter from his wife.

However, he began feeling homesick much earlier – hit with sudden thoughts and feelings about taking his family for granted.

Muniz left the jungle on Sunday night's episode.

“It’s important to say, I am very fortunate in my life. I’m lucky. But I was just very, very stressed out. Running around with my head cut off, kind of feeling like I could never get caught up,” he said.

“And so, by day seven, with zero distraction, I kind of felt like, ‘wow, this has been such an eye-opening experience’.

“The amount of talking you do, and the conversations, it was a really interesting thing to have realisations in those moments, in those conversations.

“And the longer I stayed, the more I kept feeling confident about what I had learned. And I kept just thinking to myself, ‘Man, I wish my wife got to see me, how I feel right now.’

“I didn’t want to be a quitter. I wanted to make it to the end, especially for the charity [Dementia Australia]. But when I got the letter [from Paige], that was kind of the moment where I was like, this is a sign of the things that I always say I’m going to do. ‘I’m going to be better when I get back. When I get home, I’m going to start, I’m going to play with my son more.’

“But I always kind of put it off. So I was like, ‘I just want to go do it now’.”

Suffice to say, Muniz’s first FaceTime with Paige and Mauz was a tearful reunion.

Muniz video called his son after leaving the jungle, saying it was an “emotional” chat.

The former teen star has been racing since he left California back in 2008. Picture: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

“It was very emotional … There was so much that I wanted to tell her that I did, but I wanted to hear what she did, and my son,” he said.

“I feel such a greater appreciation for my family, for my wife, which I realised that I’ve always, not that I put myself first, but I always think that my problems are maybe the only problems. And it made me realise I just want to be there to listen and be a good husband and a good friend.

“And that’s honestly something that I learned being in the jungle, which is weird. It sounds weird to say, but it’s true.”

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

Originally published as Frankie Muniz reveals huge future plans after ‘life-changing’ I’m A Celeb stint