LEIGH & KRISTIE AT BREAKING POINT

As they fight for their place in the competition, feisty Victorian couple Leigh and Kristie admit they’re struggling. Not only are the parents-of-two at the wrong end of the leaderboard, they have been silently battling severe homesickness. ‘I cry at the drop of a hat,’ Kristie, 33, tells New Idea about her struggles being away from her two children, Billie, four, and Kobe, three.

‘I’m struggling with the mother’s guilt,’ she admits, fighting back tears.

‘I’ve packed up my kids and moved schools, and they’ve adjusted, but the stuff they’re missing out on, I feel guilty.

‘I was like: “What am I doing?” When I first left the kids. I was vomiting in the taxi on the way to the airport.’

Carpenter Leigh, 36, adds: ‘Mentally, you don’t understand how tough it is.’