The NRL champion has lifted the lid on why it means so much.
Sam Thaiday has revealed he’s glad the Australian public got to see the real version of himself that his wife and kids see at home after the Brisbane Broncos great won $100,000 for a charity close to his heart. Thaiday was crowned the winner of ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here’ on Sunday night, beating fellow finalists Matty J and Reggie Bird.
The NRL champion won $100,000 for men’s mental health charity ‘Find Ya Feet’, which helps teach young men that it’s okay to speak about how they’re feeling. Thaiday opened up to his fellow contestants earlier in the season about how he contemplated suicide as a teenager, and how a charity like ‘Find Ya Feet’ would have helped him so much.
In an interview on the FIVEAA Sports Show on Adelaide radio this week, Thaiday opened up on why his triumph on the reality TV show means so much to him. “My tactic was to say yes to everything in there and lean into the experience,” he said. “I really wanted to show Australia the full package of Sam Thaiday.
I am known and remembered for my footy talents and maybe some fun and humour off the field with the Footy Show and things like that. But to be able to show a kind-hearted Sam is something that not a lot of people get to see. It’s mainly just at home with my daughters – they get to see that sort of stuff all the time – but Australia doesn’t. So I was pretty pumped to show Australia the full package.”
Sam Thaiday wins $100,000 for ‘Find Ya Feet’ charity
Thaiday is also rapt to be able to help Tommy Herschel with $100,000 for the ‘Find Ya Feet’ charity. “It’s a fantastic charity,” he said. “Tommy goes into schools and works with young boys and lets them know it’s okay to talk about their feelings.
I think as men we are still very guarded with our emotions and our feelings. We have the old school mentality of ‘men don’t cry’ and ‘men don’t talk about their feelings’. Tommy starts young and lets boys know it’s ok, and at the end of the day they’ll grow into champion adults that will run businesses and be great husbands and great fathers.”
Thaiday said the $100,000 will allow Herschel to spread his message further, and he’s now planning to head to North Queensland to work with some remote communities. “I just think what he’s doing is such an incredible thing,” he added.
Sam Thaiday’s devastating admission about personal battle
Thaiday previously told his fellow contestants why the charity was so close to his heart. “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,” Thaiday said.
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. 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.”
Thaiday played 304 games for the Broncos as well as 29 State of Origin games for Queensland and 32 Test matches for Australia. He proved a popular winner of ‘I’m a Celeb’, with fans expressing their delight on social media.
