A charity challenge designed to bring the Blockheads together instead leaves Jolene at breaking point, as the cattle station manager throws herself into the task for deeply personal reasons.
It’s Rumpus Room and Laundry Week on site, but Jolene chooses instead to put all her energy into the week’s extra challenge: building a safe space for the Mornington Community Support Centre, which provides vital accommodation for people facing homelessness and domestic violence. For Jolene, the challenge hits particularly close to home.
“Not everybody put 110 per cent into that charity,” Jolene tells TV WEEK. “I’ve been in that situation myself, so for us it wasn’t about the money.
“So, when Charlotte and Maddie [winners of The Block 2024 who return as challenge all-stars] made it about winning that challenge, by withholding things like the van so we couldn’t get things into our space, that felt crappy.”
But, while the experience brings frustration, it also reminds Jolene, 42, just how much she has to be grateful for, particularly when she watches her husband, Adam, and team-mate Rosco throw themselves into the charity build.
“I look back at my situation then and I go, ‘Adam saved me,’” Jolene recalls. “Watching him and Rosco put everything into this challenge was amazing. He’s just got the biggest heart.”
For Tayla, who is on Jolene’s team, however, the intensity makes the week difficult, particularly after Jolene confronts her over tiles in Freedom.
“No one was safe from her wrath that week,” says Tayla, 32. “Lisa and a lot of people did actually come up to me after that and asked me, ‘Are you okay?’ Because it was really quite rude.”
The tension spills into another confrontation when Tayla believes that Jolene and Adam have a prohibited trade working on site after hours. Tayla asks him to go, leaving Jolene furious after the way Tayla speaks to him.
“Call it a miscommunication,” Tayla says. “But it would have been nice for her to actually come up and say sorry for yelling at me. But she didn’t do that.
“So that just proved again what type of person she was. I’m okay with that because I don’t need that negative energy in my life.”
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on the Nine Network and 9Now.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
