Piper and Veronica’s MKR dreams came crashing down last week after failing to impress at the Coles Biscuit Challenge. But it was Piper’s decision to blame Veronica for the recipe that really shocked her fellow contestants.
“I can’t believe Piper threw poor Veronica under the bus,” Romel whispered to his teammate Ibby.
“How dare you blame Veronica! You Botox-filled little snake,” Josh vented to camera.
“What a b—-,” Andy said. “It’s the second time she’s done that!”
Indeed, Piper left viewers – and the other teams – speechless again at her Open Restaurant last week when she told Manu their decision to serve coconut bread was Veronica’s idea.
While Veronica, 41, tells TV WEEK she didn’t take offence, she does admit Piper can be “controlling”.
“She’s a bit of a control freak,” she says of her teammate.
Veronica says her teammate Piper is “a bit of a control freak.”
Meanwhile, Josh and Austin say this is just another example of Piper’s “sneaky” behaviour.
While both teams managed to avoid elimination, Josh and Austin claim beauty queen Piper set them up to fail with their dishes at their joint Open House – so that the brothers would lose their place in the competition.
“We had a theory that she was trying to sabotage us”, Josh, 25, explains to TV WEEK. “She knew that if we ended up in elimination together, group two would strategically vote for her and Veronica to stay.”
Josh and Austin say the atmosphere between the foursome was tense in the days leading up to their Open House. They had three days to practise together, but were constantly bickering about how and what should be done.
Josh believes Piper was trying to sabotage him and Austin.
Josh and Austin say it all came to a head when Piper and Veronica “broke into” their apartment.
“We tried our best to work with them,” Josh says. “Veronica was alright – she was on the same page as us – but Piper wasn’t having a bar of it. We called her up asking if she wanted to practise and she said she was confident about her dishes and we should practise and get more confident with ours [the main course].
“But when we called her the next day to say we were going to stay at home and practise on our main, she said she was ‘disappointed’ and wanted to practise together. We didn’t want to work with her, because she wasn’t taking us seriously.”
The boys say Piper and Veronica turned up to their apartment anyway – and let themselves in.
Understandably, Josh was horrified.
“It was a breach of our privacy,” he says. “We didn’t speak to them for the rest of the day.”
“We were so stressed out,” Austin adds.
Austin says they were “stressed out” by Piper.
Josh and Austin, 22, drew on their Christian faith, saying the teachings of the Bible taught them to avoid Piper.
“You can’t confront her,” Austin says. “She just tears you down, antagonises and undermines you and then makes you look like a fool.”
This week, the contestants become even more wary of Piper as her close bond with Victor comes into question.
“I don’t think Piper would know what the truth was if it slapped her in the face,” Romel, 42, tells TV WEEK.
“Do I trust her? Absolutely not. She definitely was the villain.”
MY KITCHEN RULES airs Monday to Wednesday, 7.30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, on Channel Seven.
