When Big Brother returned to our screens in 2020 – ‘rebooted’ after a hiatus – ‘outback tradie’ Mat Garrick was the first confirmed contestant for the new season.
And over two years on from his appearance on the show, the reality tv star seems to be struggling with some inner demons, as he’s taken to Instagram to own his ‘mistakes’.
Hailing from Broken Hill in NSW the 32-year-old is a mining electrician who formed a fast alliance-turned-friendship with fellow housemate Daniel Gorringe.
The re-formed version of the popular reality TV show saw the housemates having to strategise, blindside and form alliances to stay in the house.
And Mat and Dan’s strategic game-playing resulted in enemies, as Mat told New Idea at the time he got evicted.
“We’ve been getting abused for the way we play the game, but it just seemed that it was okay for everyone else to play it and not us.
“Social media has not been good for me. But amongst all the hate there’s been a lot of support so I’m thankful to those people.”
Now Mat has used social media to held himself accountable, surprising his followers by posting at length about the previous 18 months he’s had “filled with pain and anguish”.
Mat posted a black and white ‘selfie’ alongside the lengthy caption.
(Image: Instagram)When asked back in 2020 how he’ll go in the Big Brother house, Mat said: ‘I hope I’m a pretty likeable guy. Got to keep my wits about myself. Some people are conniving and backstabbing.’
But according to his statement on Instagram, he hasn’t been a very likeable guy as of late.
Mat didn’t hold back on taking responsibility for his previous actions, saying, “Worst 18 months of my life, because it was filled with pain and anguish for those closest to me. Guess who caused all the grief? Me.
“My pathetic behaviour, my stupid decisions, my dragging other people into my lies, my gaslighting, my hurting loved ones, my hurting innocent people who deserved none of it. It’s all on me and for all of that I am eternally sorry. I haven’t lived up to my up bringing and have let my fam and friends down. That’s a reflection of me, not them.”
Mat took to his Instagram with a lengthy caption so he could ‘publicly own’ his ‘mistakes’.
(Image: Instagram)The stream of confessions continued, as he wrote, “I’ve let so many people down and hurt countless others and if you’re one of those people who is reading this, and even if you’re not, from the bottom of my heart I am sorry.”
But Mat wanted to reassure his fans, followers, friends and family that this wasn’t an attempt for him to relief himself of guilt.
“This isn’t a cry for help, this isn’t a woe is me tale, I don’t want you to feel sorry for me… This is just an attempt to stop hiding behind my shame and to publicly own my mistakes and apologise for them.”
It might be that his time on Big Brother had an emotional effect on the tradie, as soon after his BB eviction he was quoted saying “I cry at the drop of a hat now … it’s all come crashing down since I left.”
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