Trevor proposed to his girlfriend after winning Big Brother 2004. This is their life now.

When Trevor Butler proposed to his girlfriend Breea Forrest on live TV after winning Big Brother in 2004, plenty of people were cynical.

“People thought we weren’t going to make it, with all this Big Brother stuff,” Butler tells Mamamia. “There were rumours going round that she was just there for the money.”

But Butler and Forrest had already been going out for more than six years. Butler had moved from Broken Hill to the Gold Coast to be with Forrest.

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“People didn’t know that she worked three jobs when I moved up here with only 80 bucks and no job,” he explains. “She did that for me, for a good four or five months. I’d pick her up and take her to work, because I was still looking for work.”

Butler wasn’t even tempted by girls who approached him after Big Brother.

“They’re coming up to me and saying ‘hello’ with their boobs out or whatever, and then I’ve got a girl here who worked three jobs, who loved me for who I was, and not for what I had.”

Fast-forward 15 years, and the couple are happily married with two boys, 12-year-old Maika and eight-year-old Creedence.

“Me and Breezy are still together, so we’re doing all right.”

The love story between Butler and Forrest began in late 1997 when Forrest was visiting relatives in Broken Hill. The two of them met, got to know each other at a party, then went for a walk.

“For some reason – she can’t remember why – she just started holding my hand as we were walking. We both got that feeling that this was something special, and it grew from there. It was just from holding hands. I can still remember the time and where we were walking.”

Forrest went back home, but the two of them started writing to each other.

“We were penpals for about 18 months. I’ve still got all the letters.”

Butler packed up his possessions in three suitcases, hopped on a bus and moved to the Gold Coast to be with Forrest. A couple of years later, he got the idea to go on Big Brother. After narrowly missing out in 2003, he was chosen in 2004.

“I went on just to get my 15 seconds of fame, just to have a bit of fun,” he remembers. “I thought to myself, ‘I’ll make two weeks.’”

Butler was in the house with Merlin “free the refugees” Luck, as well as Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, Bree Amer and Wes Dening. His laidback personality and sense of humour saw him win the $1,000,000.

Butler and Forrest put the money in the bank and didn’t touch it for a year.

“We were both young – we didn’t know what we were doing,” Butler says. “We had people coming out of the woodwork, going, ‘Blah blah blah.’ We had Breezy’s grandparents saying, ‘Don’t listen to anybody.’

“We ended up buying a house. We invested some money, we lost some money, but we’ve still got a house that’s doubled in price.”

After Big Brother, Butler went on another reality series, Celebrity Overhaul, where he lost 15kg.

“I was like, ‘This is really good! I’ll go to the gym and stuff!’ And I went back for one game of soccer and I tore my hamstring and then I put all the weight back on. But I’ve started to go back to the gym and I’ve started to play soccer again because my son’s really into soccer.”

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Butler also had a brief cameo in Chris Lilley’s series Summer Heights High. Now, he works in promotions for Gold Coast radio station 102.9 Hot Tomato.

“All I do drive around and talk on the radio for 15 or 20 seconds, act like a goose and give out free stuff,” he explains. “The thing I like about this job is I can drop the kids off to school and pick them up from school. Heaps of parents can’t do that because they’re working. I get to walk the kids down to their classrooms and say hello to their friends and I don’t want to miss out on all that.

“Being a dad is the best thing in the world. It’s just awesome.”

Butler says Maika and Creedence take after both their parents.

“Breezy’s an accountant now. They’re smart like her. They’ve got a good brain on them. But they’ve got my humour as well.”

As for why the relationship has lasted so long, Butler thinks it’s because the two of them complement each other.

“I’m really calm, because I’m on Fiji time, 24 hours a day,” he explains. “Sometimes she gets a little bit anxious with stuff and I just calm her down. And then I doubt myself every now and again and she’s always there to back me up. She’s the backbone of the family.”

Fifteen years after winning Big Brother, Butler is happy with his life.

“The kids are healthy, me and Breezy are in a good place. You’ve just got to be grateful for what you get.”