In 2021, Skye Wheatley was axed from reality TV. Now she's won I'm A Celeb.

In 2014, Skye Wheatley decided to enter the Big Brother house, and at the time, she had no idea how her stint on the reality show would change the course of her life. 

Now, she's just won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia, and is one of Australia's most popular fitness and lifestyle influencers.

Watch: Skye Wheatley discusses surgery. Post continues below.

The 30-year-old was crowned the winner in Sunday night's grand finale, receiving $100,000 for her chosen charity, Bully Zero. 

While her casting was initially met with scepticism, viewers of the show quickly fell in love with her after the resilience she showed while in the jungle.

Skye couldn't believe that she won I'm A Celeb 2024. Image: Network Ten.

Despite being considered a frontrunner from the start, Skye couldn't believe she had made it out victorious, stating: "I've never won anything."

Boasting close to 650,000 followers on Instagram, the mega influencer has people invested in her life both on-screen and off-screen.

So let's take a closer look as to who Skye is outside of the jungle.

Her time on Big Brother Australia.

Skye finished in third place on season 11 of Big Brother Australia, but while the show was airing fans expected her to win the season. 

The then 20-year-old was the youngest contestant to ever appear on the franchise and she experienced a rough ride, with the former barista from the Gold Coast often called "shallow and naive" by fellow housemates.

Skye opened up about her experience on Big Brother in the first episode of I'm A Celeb, admitting that people still comment on her personality.

"People always tell me, 'You say really stupid things, Skye,'" she said. "I always offend people and I don’t mean to. It hurts me."

Skye is one of the biggest success stories to come out of Big Brother, and after the show she left behind her job as a barista to pursue social media instead, where she shares her family life, travel, renovations and daily musings. 

In 2021 she was due to film the revamped Big Brother as franchise "royalty", but as she told I'm A Celeb, she was booted from the show weeks before filming, via email.

"I was supposed to go on for that, but a couple of weeks before flying to Sydney to do it, I answered a question on my Instagram, 'Who’s more dominant in the bedroom?'," Wheatley said.

"And I said, 'Oh, it depends … If I’m in the mood, I’m not going to take no for an answer.' But he likes that. He likes when I’m like, 'Babe, let’s have sex.'

"But everyone was like, 'You make him have non-consensual sex.'"

She explained that the email didn't give her a reason for not going ahead with her being on the show, but she doesn't see what else it could've been, telling the celebrities, "They didn’t want bad publicity or anything like that, which was really disappointing. It actually broke my heart".

"Body image has been my biggest hurdle in life."

Skye is an open book about most things in her life, and the work she's had done to her body is a topic her followers are particularly interested in.

The reality star has admitted to spending thousands on cosmetic surgery and procedures, telling The Project that it's an obsession that comes from being on TV.

She underwent her first breast augmentation procedure overseas in Thailand in 2015 to help even out her breast size. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan, and Skye was left with a "botched" bubble in her breast after surgery.

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"When I had the bandages taken off I could see a really noticeable double bubble in my right breast and I was in a lot of pain. I was in bed the whole time trying to recover and wear my compression bra," Skye said on Trial By Kyle in 2018.

"They're quite different sizes and that's what I wanted to correct. Obviously, I was insecure about my breasts beforehand, so now it's just amplified. It's a lot worse. I had spent nights crying over it and being so upset over it." 

She then spent $28,000 on corrective surgery in Australia.

Skye also had a rhinoplasty in 2016, which she documented over on her YouTube channel. 

Despite going under the knife a few times, Skye still struggles with body image and told viewers in a YouTube video that her surgeries didn't "fix" her insecurities.

"I feel like [body image] has been my biggest hurdle in life and something that I've focused on a lot," she said in 2020 when asked about her transformation. 

"Which I know I shouldn't, but I’ve always been very hard on myself, I've always been very self-critical.

"I know it's normal for people to be like that, it’s human nature… but I was pretty extreme with it. I used to wear a hat in class [at school] because I was worried about my eye bags. That's how crazy it was. I had so many insecurities, not the normal amount a child my age should have and I don't know why I was like that, I don't know what happened.

"I was always very self-conscious of my weight, very insecure about everything about me. Insecure about my eye bags, my skin; how white I was, my hair.

"I honestly would try to cover up as much of my face as possible with a hat, and lots of makeup. I think when I turned 15 I would pack on the makeup… and I still hated myself. I hated my teeth, I hated my freckles and hated my nose. Hated it. I never learned to accept my nose and went and had plastic surgery."

She then went on to reveal that even as an adult, she's not entirely content with her physical appearance.

"I still have insecurities, I'm still really hard on myself, and yeah, I probably need counselling. It's bad to be like that," she said. 

Skye also had a message for the young girls who look up to her, urging them to not take everything at face value.

"Like, hello. I'm not real. If you’re looking at me thinking 'f**k she's perfect', I have had my nose, I've had my boobs, I've had my lips, I've whitened my teeth, I've coloured my hair, I wear fake tan, there’s a lot of peacocking." 

"We trialled co-parenting." A complicated family life.

Skye is currently dating 33-year-old businessman Lachlan Waugh, but despite being together for six years, their relationship hasn't always been smooth sailing.

Earlier in the year, Skye and Lachlan's relationship was plagued by break-up rumours. However, the influencer later revealed that the two worked out their differences by attending couple's counselling.

"We trialled co-parenting, so I would have the kids two nights then he would have the kids two nights. After a little bit doing that, [Lachlan] was like, 'Okay, you can come home now,'" Skye said in a TikTok video.

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The two make frequent appearances on each other's social media accounts, along with their sons, Forest Van Waugh and Bear West Waugh.

Skye and Lachlan welcomed their first child, Forest, on December 24, 2018, with Skye describing her son's birth as the "most rewarding, intense, and wonderful experience of my life."

She was very candid in sharing new mum-life; including pictures on her socials of her "giant maternity pad" and "swollen eyes."

Three years later, they had their youngest son, Bear, on April 23, 2021. Describing the inspiration behind her son's middle name, Skye said, "My first boyfriend I dated in high school, his last name was West also. That's how I grew to love the name actually."

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On I'm A Celeb Skye broke down in tears about how her ADHD affects her parenting. 

"I just get annoyed by myself...people think I am being stupid and over-reacting.... It's about a lifetime of being disorganised and not being able to get my shit together and it pisses me off. 

"Because I am a mum and I can't even get organised for my own kids...I think about that and I'm like 'I'm a shit mum, how do you have two kids and you can't look after yourself?'" 

Her experience with bulimia.

Recently, Skye opened up about her experience with bulimia.

Speaking to her fellow contestants on I'm A Celeb, the influencer admitted to having an eating disorder.

"When I was much younger, just the pressure, Instagram, and being in the spotlight... I felt like I had to look a certain way," she said. "I’m a really bad binge eater. I used to do it once a week. You’d feel sick about the amount of food I was eating in one sitting."

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She added, "I think it’s my ADHD. With ADHD you are always searching for that quick dopamine hit. Packets of chips, Maltesers, two-minute noodles, blocks of chocolate. Everything within one sitting. I’d finish it all off and then within one hour…"

She then said that ever since she started learning more about nutrition, she's been able to get a handle on her disordered eating.

In 2024, Skye is reclaiming the narrative.

Throughout her time in the jungle, Skye remained true to herself, mainly because of her no-holds-barred attitude. While she knows that her honesty might not always be well received, Skye hoped that viewers can see that she was coming from a genuine place.

In 2023 she made headlines after she went on an Instagram rant, slamming fellow influencers for not promoting the free products she sent them from her clothing brand. 

Last year she also made it into the media for plugging 'collarium' sunbeds, and racially insensitive comments about skin colour.

"I do say really dumb s**t and sometimes I don’t find the right vocabulary to express what I’m trying to say and it will come out wrong," she admitted on I'm A Celeb. "And it’s just like, oh f**k, that’s not what I actually meant. And I’m very impulsive, so I can say things in the moment and then it’d be like, 'wow, that was not the right thing to say'." 

This article was originally published on April 18, 2024, and has since been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Instagram @skye.wheatley.

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