Bernie walks but says: I’m no quitter
HE lasted just three nights but Gold Coast tennis brat Bernard Tomic says his jungle experience has helped him find the clarity he needs to back on the court “as soon as possible”.
“I’ve got to get back to where I belong,” Tomic said after quitting the show. “It might take me six months but every day is going to be a step closer and every day I spend out there is a day I lose.”
Out there is the South African jungle camp where Tomic was competing for $100,000 for his chosen charity – Ronald McDonald House – on reality show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!
But even before he went in with fellow celebs, including actor Kerry Armstrong, comic Fiona O’Loughlin, AFL star Josh Gibson and Real Housewives star Jackie Gillies, he was having doubts.
“I shouldn’t have probably come but I am happy I came because something clicked for me in those few days in camp,” he said.
“It is something I will never forget but I need to go back to doing what I do and doing what I do best. My main focus is continuing where I started about a month-and-a-half ago.”
Tomic apologised to fans for his early exit. “I obviously disappointed the fans that were expecting to see me this whole time and I am sorry that I let them down,” he said.
“But this was for my best interests and something that is going to benefit my career. I definitely don’t see myself as a quitter.”
Tomic, 25, was hoping for the ultimate redemption story in the jungle, and it was working.
Just last week he said he was hoping he “can give the public a true side of me”. “I just don’t think that it was the right time for me here,” he said of his decision to leave. “It is what it is and I hope one day I can come back to this in maybe a decade and complete it.”
For now though it is tennis all the way, although, interestingly, he still concedes he “will never love the game”. “I will never love it like I did when I was 12, 13, 15 years old, I will never love it like that,” he said. “It is a business, I like it.
“The past year I have been so confused and I haven’t played that much tennis and I have enjoyed my life, which I am human, I’ve deserved. I have worked for the past 16 to 18 years to be where I am and obviously needed a break.”
Tomic flies home today and plans to get back on court immediately.
“As soon as I get back, I will be training and getting ready to do all the tournaments and where I should be back in the sport, in the top 20 or top 15 and push for the top five to eight in the world, that is my goal, ” he said.
Tomic said he won’t be cashing in his earnings for going on the show and has vowed to continue to support Ronald McDonald House.