After months of saving and planning, The Block contestants Kirsty and Jesse thought they knew exactly what was coming in Backyard Week.
But while the NSW couple had managed to put aside extra money for what they knew would be the biggest and most expensive yard ever on The Block, there was one thing they hadn’t counted on: their neighbours.
“We had to leave at the beginning of the week for my Nan’s funeral,” Kirsty, 33, tells TV WEEK. “And while we were gone, it seems the other contestants started coming over to our place to check out what was going on.
“When we came back, we were bombarded in a body corporate [meeting] that Josh and Luke called, where they pretty much accused us of cheating because we had so many tradies in our yard.”
Kirsty and Jesse were accused of cheating during backyard week.
(Image: Nine)And that’s enough to make the country singer explode.
“You’re forgetting that we aren’t the ones who’ve been cheating on this show!” Kirsty fires back.
She points out that some of the tradies the others had counted were working with the pool installer, others were part of The Block’s construction crew, and more were with her landscaper, who’d agreed to a fixed price to complete their yard.
Kirsty is really stung when Luke asks who wants to see Kirsty and Jesse’s books and one of the first to vote yes is her Block bestie Georgia.
Kirsty said she was ‘devastated’ by the accusation.
(Image: Nine)“I was devastated,” she says. “It felt like they were throwing us under the bus.”
Kirsty says Georgia later explained she thought she was voting for everyone to be audited, but to her it seemed a betrayal – and the last thing she needed after an already emotional week.
“What hurt the most is that we pride ourselves on our honesty,” she says. “I remember painting outside that night – it was cold, wet, the paint wouldn’t dry and I had tears running down my face. I couldn’t see the point of going on, because even if we won, they’d all say that we did it by cheating.
“We saved and worked hard because we knew that backyard would be hard to compete with, but it felt like if we won, it would all be overshadowed by doubt.”
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