The Brisbane Broncos legend earned $100,000 for his charity after opening up about why it means so much to him.
The Brisbane Broncos have joined fans in congratulating Sam Thaiday after the retired NRL great was crowned the winner of ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here’ on Sunday night. And it came after the Queensland champion revealed the heartbreaking reasons for his appearance on the reality TV show.
Thaiday was named the winner ahead of Matty J and Reggie Bird on Sunday night, leaving fans delighted for the NRL great. On Monday, the Brisbane Broncos wrote on social media: “King of the Jungle. A big congrats to Sammy on being crowned the winner of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 2025 and helping out a great cause.”
That great cause they mentioned is the ‘Find Ya Feet’ charity, which Thaiday won $100,000 for. Earlier in the season, the 39-year-old explained why the charity means so much to him as he laid bare some of the personal struggles he overcame as a youngster.
“My charity is called Find Ya Feet. It’s run by a guy named Tommy Herschel,” Thaiday told the other celebs. “He goes into schools and helps young boys, and he gives them a safe place to share their feelings and talk about how they’re feeling. I sat in on one of his sessions and to hear how brave some of these young boys were in opening up and sharing their stories about what was going on in their lives.”
Sam Thaiday’s devastating admission about past
Thaiday, who played 304 games for the Broncos as well as 29 State of Origin games for Queensland and 32 Test matches for Australia, made the heartbreaking admission on national TV that he contemplated suicide when he was a teenager. “As a 13-year-old boy, I wanted to take my own life, and I wish I had someone like Tommy around to let me know that it was okay to talk about my feelings,” he said.
“As a young kid, I really struggled to find my place. I found myself too white to be black and too black to be white, and didn’t know where I fit in. And if I had someone like Tommy Herschel in my life as a young kid, maybe I would have shared a lot of these stories a lot earlier in my life.
“He’s a bit of a one-man band at the moment, and I just thought he needed help. So that’s why I’m in here. And hopefully even, like, I don’t even have to win it, I just want to raise some awareness for him, I want people talking about it.”
Sam Thaiday a popular winner of ‘Im a Celebrity’
It wasn’t the first time Thaiday spoke publicly about his mental health demons, after opening up in an interview back in 2020. But it brought it to the attention of a national audience on TV for the first time, and gave ‘Find Ya Feet’ some much-needed exposure.
“I had bottled up my feelings for so long not knowing how to express them,” he told the Courier Mail in 2020. “I told her (the therapist) my story and I left that session somewhat motivated to tell people my story. Hopefully by getting my story out I can encourage people to speak up.
“I still have moments now where I second guess myself. Self doubt is the loudest voice in your head. That kind of was an ongoing thing throughout my whole life. I want to learn and grow and get better to make that the quietest voice in side my head. I see myself right now as being a little bit lost and lonely at times.”
