Throughout the years, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! has allowed audiences to see a raw, unfiltered side to Australia’s famous folks. This season, Married At First Sight‘s (MAFS) Cyrell Paule has opened up about her struggles with self-worth as a woman of colour.
This article contains minor I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! spoilers. You’ve been warned.
With plenty of time to kill in between the Viper Room and Tucker Trials, celebrities usually talk about their personal lives, including all of the challenges they face outside of the public eye.
In a snippet shared ahead of Monday night’s episode, Cyrell — who’s been dubbed as “Cyclone Cyrell” due to her tumultuous run on MAFS 2019 — opened up about the backlash she faces as a Filipina Australian dating a White Australian man.
In her deep and meaningful chat with Concetta Caristo, Cyrell began by admitting that all the hate she got from other women “followed” her into her new relationships.
“Those girls were mean and cruel, and there were a lot of things that they had said that, you know, really followed me,” Cyrell began.
“Because my partner [Eden Dally], being who he is, you know — he was on Love Island — he’s known to go with the blonde girls with the blue eyes.
“And I’d get comments like, ‘Oh, what’s he doing with Cyrell?’ You know? Like, ‘How can he wake up to a face like that every morning?’”
In a confessional, Cyrell unpacked the aftermath of MAFS and how the beginning of her relationship with Eden was marred by commentary about her race.
“After MAFS, when I was in a relationship, my partner being a — I don’t know, a White Australian man — they just did not see why he’d be with the short, Black Asian,” she shared.
Shortly after Network 10 shared the incredibly candid snippet, Eden himself shared a supportive comment, expressing that he was “lucky” to wake up to Cyrell every morning.
“This breaks my heart,” Eden wrote.
“I’ve always known how lucky I am to wake up to that face every day!! You are amazing ❤️ you so much,” he continued.
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV ahead of the episode, Cyrell expressed that she struggled with society’s idea of beauty and how those comments really messed with her self-worth.
“We forget our value and then start believing other people’s words rather than our own,” Cyrell told P.TV.
“For a while there, I forgot my self-worth, my values and self-love! I lost being the woman I was to negativity, but after some time — with the birth of my son, the love of my family and the praise from my partner — I remembered the woman I was before MAFS. Before the comments.”
As a Filipino-Australian myself, I also take Cyrell’s struggles with beauty standards, self-worth and belonging to heart. Similarly to Tina Provis — who opened up about her internalised racism in the jungle in 2025 — the experience of questioning ourselves and our place in Australia is unfortunately shared.
But having women like Cyrell and Tina speak out about these experiences on TV can potentially help those who are going through it (as well as the younger generation) to understand that they’re more than enough.
And this is why I stress: representation matters on Aussie TV.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues tonight at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
