Ryan Moloney certainly wasn’t making any friends on his first night in the desert on SAS: Australia vs England.
The furious former Neighbours star, who played ‘Toadfish’ Rebecchi for 30 years, unleashed on his fellow recruits when they were punished for not filling their water bottles.
“The biggest threat for me was not the course itself, but my fellow recruits,” Ryan, 46, tells TV WEEK. “I was constantly noticing stuff that would get us drilled.”
But his verbal spray at the other recruits did put a few noses out of joint and left some wondering whether Ryan mistakenly thought he was part of the DS!
Ryan, however, defends his actions on the show, saying he “wasn’t there to be taken kindly”.
“I was on their side and they didn’t even realise,” he says of his fellow recruits. “I had their backs, no matter what; whether they liked me or not.”
Ryan is one of 14 celebrities – seven Aussies and seven Brits – toughing it out on the SAS course this season. Waving the Aussie flag alongside Ryan are Natalie Bassingthwaighte (his former Neighbours co-star), Married at First Sight alumni Jessika Power, singer and actor Axle Whitehead, Olympians Emily Seebohm and Mack Horton, and former cricketer Brad Hodge.
For Ryan, it was a chance for Australia to see him, rather than his much-loved character Toadie. But will they like what they see?
“They’ll probably watch it and think, ‘Geez, he’s an annoying pr*ck,’” he laughs.
What the public will see is a guy who’s taking the course seriously. “And they’re asking you to take it seriously. So, all you can do is give 100 per cent and that’s what I did in my own version – and I tried to help everyone out at the same time.”
While the physical side of the course pushed Ryan to his limits, he didn’t realise until later he had a serious medical condition during filming.
“I actually had a giant hernia,” Ryan reveals. “I had half of my insides shoved up underneath my left lung. I was actually struggling to breathe a bit and that’s why.”
He also experienced “overwhelming emotional episodes” which were directly linked to the hernia, he says. “I felt like I was losing my mind, to be honest.”
Despite all this, Ryan says he has no regrets about taking part in the brutal reality show.
“These opportunities never come up,” he says of doing SAS. “Yes, it’s scary and confronting and all that kind of stuff, but at the same time, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Since leaving Neighbours in 2024, Ryan has shunned the spotlight in favour of a quiet life in the Victorian town of Colac with his family – wife Alison Hayward and their two children, Erin and Jack. He runs a business providing services to locals.
No, he doesn’t miss playing Toadie on Neighbours (“it was time to move on and do other things”). But, as for another TV role, it’s not something he’s too worried about.
“In all honesty, I don’t really care,” he says. “I love doing farm work, helping people out and working with animals.
“If a cool project comes up, then absolutely. And if not, then I’m still pretty happy.”
SAS: Australia vs England airs Wednesday 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7Plus.
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