Matty ‘J’ Johnson and Laura Byrne slam ‘unfair’ I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! finale as they revealed what really happened behind the scenes

Bachelor couple Matty ‘J’ Johnson and Laura Byrne had an emotional on-air reunion during Sunday night’s finale of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 

In the lead-up to the finale, Laura travelled with their two young daughters Marlie-Mae, five, and Lola Ellis, four, to the South African jungle. 

Speaking on her Life Uncut podcast on Tuesday, Laura said the grueling 24 hours of travel, including three separate flights to get to Kruger National Park in South Africa, was ‘really hard’ and ‘unfair’ on both her and the children. 

‘That in itself was really hard. It was like 24 hours by the time we got door-to-door,’ she said. 

‘Midnight transfer with two children who were absolutely f***ing ropable.’ 

Taking to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, the exhausted mum joked only the view of a lion in the wild ‘was worth my kid stripping naked in a rage at Singapore airport.’ 

Bachelor couple Matty ‘J’ Johnson and Laura Byrne had an emotional on-air reunion during Sunday night’s finale of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!, but they have described what really happened behind the scenes as a nightmare

By the time Laura and her daughters arrived to film this tear-jerking moment, the Bachelor star said she felt like she’d ‘been flogged for days’. Pictured: Matty J, Lola, and Marlie-Mae

The wholesome footage of Matty breaking down in tears as he embraced his little girls for the first time in weeks really struck a chord with viewers, many of whom flocked to the IAC Instagram to say the TV moment made them cry. 

But for Laura, the reality of making reality TV with kids was ‘really, really hard’.

‘I wanted them to be there because that’s such a special memory for us a family. Not for me. I have PTSD,’ she laughed. 

‘Matt came out and he was so happy,’ she added. 

‘He’d just had this big experience and on the receiving end of that, I felt like I’d been flogged for days.’ 

Matty explained that because the final episode was pre-recorded, he thought he would have three days to spend with his family. 

In scenes that played out in Sunday’s finale, Matty J, Big Brother star Reggie Bird and NRL star Sam Thaiday were each surprised with their family members, who then watched them participate in one final challenge. 

The emotional reunion was filmed first. 

‘When we had our reunion – it was maybe half an hour I think where we had time together and then they’ve got to pull us apart,’ Matty said. 

Then he was ‘taken away’ to film the trial. 

Speaking on her Life Uncut podcast on Tuesday, Laura said the grueling 24 hours of travel, including three separate flights to get to Kruger National Park in South Africa , was ‘really hard’ and ‘unfair’ on both her and the children

Laura took three connecting flights from Sydney to South Africa with her little girls Pictured: Lola

‘The kids don’t get it, the kids don’t understand,’ Laura explained. 

‘They’re like, “I’ve just met my dad, and then I’ve got to go.” And then we did that trial where we had to have s**t poured on our heads and Lola’s in tears being like, “Why are you attacking my dad?”‘ 

‘I felt like I was the emotional buffer between the children and production.’  

Matty then had to film the big reveal of the finale winner. 

The children believed they would then get to be properly reunited with ‘daddy’ after ‘three instances’ where they’d been reunited with him to film something, only to be  separated again. 

‘And in the kids’ minds, they’re thinking “This is it, so we’ll get to go home with dad after.” [But] then they kept Matt on set until 6 o’clock and we went home earlier. And it was so hard on Lola particularly,’ Laura said.

Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Laura explained that Lola, four, has always been a mum’s girl. 

‘Lola has always preferred me and has been so mean to her dad in the past. And it has upset Matt at different times,’ she said.

On Monday, she shared some more positive highlights from the whirlwind family trip to pick up Matty J from the South African jungle, saying she did it for the ‘special family memory’  Pictured: Matty J and Lola

‘But in the last couple of weeks, she has been having a really hard time. And then I had to deal with her big emotions around “Why is my daddy not coming home?”

‘It felt like this unfair false start. 

‘I think that’s why it was so hard for me. It was coupled with a lack of sleep and just trying to manage these tiny humans that really felt as though what they needed was not being catered for in that moment, and they needed their dad.’ 

On Monday, both Laura and Matty J took to their Instagram Stories to share some more positive memories from the experience. 

The girls looked to be having a great time as they got up close and personal with some of the native wildlife in the jungle, including a lion, giraffes and axed UK contestant Max Balegde backstage. 

As they returned home to Sydney this week, there were more tears – Matty’s – as the family unit adjusted to another 24 hours of travel. 

Matty admitted at one point during filming he told show producers.

‘I f***ing cannot do this,’ because he’d never spent so much time apart from his young family,’ he said.

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