Brynne Edelsten’s lowest ever point: From wealth and celebrity to rock bottom on meth and Centrelink – as she points to ‘miracle baby’ to avoid criminal conviction

Brynne Edelsten once lived a life of extraordinary wealth and celebrity. On Wednesday, the former reality star’s dramatic fall from grace was laid bare in a Melbourne courtroom. 

The one-time wife of disgraced millionaire businessman Geoffrey Edelsten appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where she pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a drug of dependence. She was spared a conviction and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. 

It was about as public as it gets for Edelsten these days, after her brief life in the spotlight was extinguished as fast as it was lit.

This time her stage was the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court – her audience a bunch of reporters and a few fellow accused criminals like her ‘former self’.

Edelsten had not long ago been staring down the barrel of a lengthy stint in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. 

It the jail that houses mushroom killer Erin Patterson and recently saw the end of tragic teenage mum Tarsha Golightly. 

But Magistrate James Henderson had little choice really but to let Edelsten walk free after a charge of trafficking methamphetamine – the deadly drug known as ice – was withdrawn.

After pleading guilty to possessing methamphetamine and a precursor to GHB, Edelsten was either so afraid of jail, or so desperate for attention, she allowed her child’s existence to be used in court in mitigation of her crimes. 

Already the ‘victim’ of ‘tasteless reporting’, ridicule of her appearance and ‘humiliation’ on a reality show, Edelsten’s barrister Veronika Drago poured fuel on the tyre fire of Edelsten’s public image with one sad, and sorry admission. 

She told the court after her client’s public split with Geoffrey in 2014 she was introduced to meth by a series of ‘difficult’ boyfriends.

Edelsten later experienced homelessness and was declared bankrupt before trying to turn her life around after she found out she was pregnant in 2021.

At the time, the then 38-year-old described the surprise news as a ‘miracle’ alongside an Instagram photo of her ultrasound.

‘Miracles do happen & each is another day closer to meeting the love of my life,’ Edelsten captioned the post. 

The court heard that miracle baby was given to Edelsten’s mother as she chased love and drugs.

In arguing for her client to be cut loose, Ms Drago told the court Edelsten had began a relationship with a man but experienced post-natal depression after seeing him arrested on television.

She moved through several crisis accommodations with her young daughter before settling in her Fitzroy home with the help of community service The Orange Door.

The cramped, $300-a-week apartment was near the south end of Brunswick Street next-door to housing commission tower.

The Daily Mail witnessed two ambulances arrive at Edelsten’scomplex in January in less than an hour as media waited for her to emerge and discuss her latest drug woes.

The area had been described as a ‘triangle of sadness’.  

Ms Drago told the court the drug bust had followed the rekindling of a past relationship and triggered Edelsten’s daughter being abandoned.

‘That was devastating and it was a wake-up call,’ Ms Drago said.

After ‘hitting rock bottom’, Edelsten sought drug and alcohol help and became abstinent, the court was told.

She told the court Edelsten had struggled mentally after an appearance on Dancing with the Stars saw her ‘humiliated’ for her dancing abilities.

Ms Drago claimed Edelsten – who also featured on SAS Australia and her own show Brynne: My Bedazzled Life – tried to maintain her public profile by attending Melbourne social events, but ‘the reality was she was getting ready in public toilets and was effectively homeless’. 

More than two kilograms of GHB precursor 1,4 butanediol and 185 grams of almost-pure ice were uncovered inside that Fitzroy flat.

But Edelsten, who is now on Centrelink, did not know the quantity of the drugs, a prosecutor told the court.

While the drugs found were a ‘massive amount’, Magistrate Henderson found Edelsten was remorseful and spared her a conviction.

She was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered to continue treatment with her psychiatrist and drug and alcohol support provider and make a $3,000 donation to Orange Door via the court.

‘Her rehabilitation is certainly an important consideration, but a message must be sent to the community that this type of offending will not be tolerated,’ Mr Henderson said.

Her co-accused and former lover, Simon Pienaar, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking offences and has been directed to stand trial at the County Court.  

Sent on her way to a waiting media pack, Edelsten was hounded for surely the very last time. 

She said nothing – it had all been said in court for better or worse.