It should be an exciting time but, for father–daughter duo Rick and Tayla, their first week on The Block quickly descends into chaos, culminating in a fiery verbal showdown with their neighbour Wyatt.
“He threatened us,” builder Rick tells TV WEEK. “He said: ‘Anyone that questions my integrity is dead to me.’ We thought to ourselves, if this is only the beginning, we need to brace ourselves for what’s to come.”
With the contestants calling not one, but two, explosive body corporates in the space of just a few days, Tayla quickly becomes the voice of the group. But, when Chantel and Wyatt find themselves the focus of one meeting because of an alleged rule breach, Wyatt doesn’t hold back.
“I’m not scared of anyone,” personal trainer Tayla, 32, tells TV WEEK. “But I did think it might be really uncomfortable for us moving forward.”
“The worst thing was, nobody stood up for Tay,” adds Rick, 63. “They all said that we should push for the body corporate but, when Tay stood up there, she was made to look like a total idiot. Nobody backed her up.”
Having battled cancer twice in the past seven years, Rick says he found it easier to put the confrontation into perspective than he might once have done.
“What I’ve been through in the last six, seven years… it doesn’t bother me anymore,” he says. “Life’s too short. I’ve been through the ringer so to be spoken to like that doesn’t offend me anymore.”
But, while Rick is happy to move on, will everyone else be able to leave this week’s dramas behind?
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on the Nine Network and 9Now.
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