GRANT & CHEZZI’S
AFFAIR BOMBSHELL!
Far from love at first sight, Grant and Cheryl “Chezzi” Denyer have confessed they “hated each other” after meeting as co-workers on set of Seven’s Sunrise in 2005! But most shocking of all, Chezzi was married and Grant was dating someone else when they met and eventually fell in love.
At the time, Grant, 43, was a weatherman, while Chezzi, 40, was his producer. “It was a rough journey – it wasn’t like you see in the movies,” Chezzi reveals on the couple’s podcast It’s All True?, admitting she found Grant “annoying” because he wasn’t doing his job properly, while he said he found her “more annoying” for bossing him around.
‘HOMEWRECKER’
“It was problematic – it took a long time to navigate,” says the Family Feud host, who confirmed that not only was Chezzi married when they eventually started their fling, he was dating another woman.
“I felt obligated to carry on the story on Sunrise with my existing partner, not knowing what I was going to do.”
Labelled a “homewrecker”, Chezzi revealed her job was placed under threat when Sunrise executives believed she was leaking stories about their connection in an attempt to break up Grant’s relationship.
“I was wearing wigs 24/7!” says Chezzi, revealing the extreme lengths she went to in order to keep their blossoming love story a secret. “I was about to be shipped off to Townsville or Cairns,” she added. “In the end I left TV. I couldn’t deal with it, my parents were petrified.
“I basically ran away… I moved back to Bathurst to sell cars,” she recalls.
“It felt naughty, it felt wrong, but oh so right at the same time,” Grant adds, admitting he realised he was madly in love with Chezzi when he found out she sold Holdens in Bathurst.
“That’s when I knew I really loved you – the home of my favourite racetrack in the world… I knew I couldn’t let her go!” he quips.
They married in 2010 and have two children – Sailor, nine, and Scout, four – with another on the way. But things got tougher for the couple when The TV WEEK Gold Logie winner was almost paralysed after an attempt to jump five cars in a monster truck went horribly wrong in 2008.
‘I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and my dreams’
“[At the time] we hadn’t confirmed our relationship,” says Chezzi. “Grant’s family didn’t know about me, we’d been living together for three months and I got a phone call that Grant had broken his back.”
“The suspension broke I think. My back broke instantly. The pain shot up so fast I was like, ‘I’m in a lot of trouble here.’ I was in such a bad way none of the morphine was working and I could tell [the paramedic] was like, ‘I’ve given enough to put an elephant down here,’” said Grant, who had a shattered vertebra and doctors feared he may never walk again.
“When your mum arrived she asked me how long we’d been living together,” Chezzi says. “She said she’d told you not to move in with me because she thought I was a gold-digger!”
Armed with a concoction of prescribed medications, including oxycodone, and with Chezzi by his side every step of the way, Grant was able to head home to recover. But the couple were in for a rough ride.
Describing the medication as the “worst part by far”, Grant’s painkillers soon became a bigger problem than his injuries. “When I closed my eyes... I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and my dreams,” said Grant.
“There were so many drug psychosis episodes where Grant would kick me out of the house thinking I was an imposter dressed up as Chezzi,” recalls his wife. “I’d be locked out of the house.”
Grant said his delusional state led him to run away from home in search of alcohol. Chezzi searched the streets and found him in his underwear, face-down and asleep in a fire exit surrounded by “filth and human poo”.
STRONGER THAN EVER
Despite what would arguably be the hardest time in their relationship, Chezzi says it “totally connected” them. And the couple are now stronger than ever, after saying I do all over again on their 10th wedding anniversary early this year near their home in Bathurst, NSW.
“Our love has only grown stronger for one another over the years,” says Chezzi. “No matter what challenges and difficulties have been thrown our way, we have overcome every single one of them.”
When the music played as Bella Varelis walked down the red carpet on the first night of the 2020 season of The Bachelor, fans knew the brunette beauty was destined to go far with Locky Gilbert. And ever since, the chemistry between the pair has only intensified, with many fans convinced the marketing consultant could be The One!
But in exclusive photos obtained by Woman’s Day, it seems the 25-year-old has since set her sights on another reality star – the Bachelorette was snapped getting close to none other than Gogglebox’s Jad Nehmetallah!
Just a week before the hotly anticipated finale went to air, Bella was spotted in Sydney’s Burwood enjoying the company of the hunky 34-year-old TV star and restaurant owner, sparking rumours the couple have been dating in secret.
According to onlookers, the pair appeared in high spirits as a giddy Bella joked around with Jad, who sits alongside his close friends Matty and Sarah Marie Fahd on reality hit Gogglebox. “There was definitely some chemistry – she was very happy and laughing at everything he was saying,” says one onlooker. “As they said goodbye he gave her a very tight hug... they seemed to be very close.”
Speaking to Woman’s Day, a source close to the Sydney reality stars reveals the couple make a really good match! “They have a stack of mutual friends and definitely travel in the same circles,”
dishes the insider. “They’re often being invited to the same events, and she is without a doubt Jad’s type of woman.”
While Bella has been cautious online and last week insisted to Woman’s Day that their cafe meeting was by chance – “it just so happens my long-time friend Jad owns the same cafe and he was there that day” – Jad has been less subtle. A quick glance at Bella’s Instagram page reveals he’s a big fan of the brunette, liking a stack of steamy photos of the star as far back as last year.