Channel 10/Instagram
I’m a Celebrity star Mia Fevola – the daughter of AFL legend Brendan Fevola – has opened up about how her father’s secret gambling addiction forced his family into homelessness.
Speaking out on the January 20 episode of the Channel 10 show, Mia told howher father “gambled $363,000 in a day” during the height of his fame.
It was the tip of the iceberg.
“He gambled his whole yearly wage, a million dollars and then the bookies came after us. My mum was like ‘Where is his pay?’” the star revealed, sharing how her mother, Alex, tried hard to protect her and her siblings Leni and Lulu, from the full extent of the problem.
“The whole gambling situation, I blocked so much of it out. I think just as a defence mechanism,” Mia said, adding that she only found out certain details when people at school would tell her.
Things came to a head in 2010 when the Fevola family were set to move into a $1.4 million home in Brisbane.
The deal fell through when the Carlton legend admitted to his secret addiction.
Mia explained that her dad had “gambled every cent” the family had – leading them to become homeless and forced to move in with Alex’s mother in Melbourne.
“We just bought a house and didn’t settle, so we got sued. And then we were homeless because he gambled every cent ever that we had,” she explained.
Alex Fevola previously shared details of the moment she discovered her husband’s secret in an interview with Mamamia’s No Filter podcast.
“The pay hadn’t gone into the account,” the star recalled.
“I thought, ‘That’s so strange. What’s going on?’ And I couldn’t get onto anybody, no one was answering my calls.
“Eventually, someone answered my call and told me that, “yeah, there was no pay” and it was that entire year’s worth of pay.”
Brendan, himself, has been open about the impact his gambling had on his family.
“It’s an addictive thing, it’s a really bad addiction to have and it obviously cripples a lot of people’s lives,” he admitted on his Fox FM radio show Fifi, Dave, Fev and Byron in 2017.
The loss of the Brisbane home turned out to be a critical point for the family.
“You know, my mum did Dancing With The Stars, and that’s how we sort of got back on our feet,” Mia explained.
“Dad went to rehab, came out, then… to think he’s turned his life around from that. He sorted himself out,” she went on, adding that her father had “owned up to his mistakes”.
“He had a lot of making up to do to my mum, that’s for sure,” the star continued.
Indeed, Brendan and Alex split after the gambling furore, divorcing in 2014, but it wasn’t the end of their story.
“There was always friendship and respect, and we ended up just starting again two new people. I feel for me, personally, I needed some time out to grow,” Alex told 9Honey in 2022.
The fresh start led to something unexpected almost two years later – a rekindling of love between the pair.
“Sometimes a break in a relationship can help you see things clearly. You can both grown and have self-reflection and when you do come back together you’ve usually grown emotionally,” Alex told the outlet.
“If we had stayed together during that time, perhaps the resentment would have continued to grow. That time apart did clarify one thing. We really wanted to get our family back together.”
The couple went on to welcome a daughter, Tobi, and remain together to this day.
“Alex has always been there and supported me and I think the one person that has always stuck by me,” Brendan told the Herald Sun in 2016.
“I don’t think it was always love but she believed in me.”
