In good company
Samantha Jade never thought she’d return to reality TV after winning X Factor a decade ago. But the chance to help a cause close to her heart changed her mind, writes
CYOU’RE PUSHING YOURSELF BECAUSE THE PRIZE IS WINNING MONEY FOR A CHARITY THAT YOUR HEART IS SO ON THE LINE FOR.
elebrity Apprentice Australia producers tried for years to woo Samantha Jade into the TV boardroom, and she’s always resisted. Until now. The opportunity to raise substantial money and awareness for the Cancer Council was too great an opportunity for the music star.
Jade’s mother died in 2014, just four months after she was diagnosed with cancer, meaning the charity is especially close to her heart and one she’s eager to help.
“So, I got asked maybe two or three times and I said: ‘No’. Because I was like: ‘I can’t do that. No, I’m not doing that, come on?’” Jade recalls.
“And then I kind of thought about it a bit more. And I was like, well, the chance to win that much money for charity? To get that chance, it’s pretty incredible.
“I do a lot of gigs for charity functions. But they’re gigs, that’s what I do.
“This is a far more challenging way [to help] and I get to push myself and do things I would never do in my real life.”
Some of those things include running a golf tournament, a wellness retreat and a take-away restaurant with only a bunch of equally inexperienced actors, athletes and TV personalities for help. But the biggest challenge of all was facing judgement from straight-shooting UK business tycoon, Lord Alan Sugar.
“You feel like you’re the naughty kid who has been sent to the principal’s office even when you haven’t done anything,” she laughs of Sugar.
“Oh my god, he is petrifying!”
The strain of Sugar’s boardroom has led to some heated confrontations and to some contestants throwing others under the bus. At one stage, Real Housewives of Melbourne star Gamble Breaux went for Jade’s jugular, accusing her of being a buzz-killer for performing “funeral music” to entertain the guests.
Jade has no hard feelings about Breaux’s critique, laughing that Amazing Grace wasn’t her go-to party anthem either but, under the pressure of the clock, it was the best she could do.
“There are only about four or five songs in the world that don’t need [legal] clearance [to perform],” she says.
“Amazing Grace is one of them. And then there’s only things like Happy Birthday and Rockin’ Robin.
“The funny thing is she [Breaux] knew that. She knew about the clearance problem because she heard me on the phone all day trying to get it cleared.
“But you know, she had to say something [to defend herself] so she said that.”
This sort of mudslinging is a reason Jade hesitated about doing another reality show after winning X Factor a decade ago.
Any lingering doubts she had about whether she could hold her own on Apprentice were quickly allayed by former contestant Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Aussie legend, Dannii Minogue, who both urged her to do it
Jade famously played Kylie Minogue in the miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. And while the pop princess gave Jade’s performance her seal of approval, the two singers are yet to meet.
Jade has, however, forged a strong bond with the younger Minogue.
“Dannii has been so kind and so sweet to me,” Jade reflects.
“And she’s just a lovely support, even for this show she was so sweet.
“She was like: ‘Get your little work boots on. It’s really intense. But I reckon you can do this’.”
Jade scoffs at the suggestion that her X Factor experience might have given her an upper hand over the likes of Underbelly actor Vince Colosimo, comedian Jean Kittson and Olympian Bronte Campbell who were all novices to the reality TV genre.
“There’s absolutely nothing that I could have brought from X Factor that would have helped me in this,” she says.
“Like it’s just so different. It’s like day and night because X Factor was singing every week. Of course, you have a story, but it wasn’t like this. This was a whole other thing.
“Oh my god. I would come home and just be like, I can’t believe how tired I am. It was just crazy.”
In addition to the long hours and on-camera mind games, the experience was even more mentally exhausting coming hot on the heels of the COVID-19 lockdown.
“It was so weird, because we went from only being with whoever we lived with – or maybe seeing one friend for a walk if they lived within 5km – to being surrounded by people we don’t know, working really hard and really long days,” she reflects.
“And so, we were just absolutely shattered. I would come home, and my fiancé would ask: ‘How was your day?’ and I just didn’t have any brain power [to even respond]. I would just have to go to sleep because I’d then have to be up at 4am the next day to do it all again.
“It was intense.”
Sure Celebrity Apprentice might, on paper, seem like easy street compared to shows such as I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, SAS Australia or even Dancing with the Stars. But
Jade points out that while the Apprentice challenges may not be as physically gruelling (or disgusting), they could be more emotionally taxing.
“It’s not the obvious kind of crazy things like eating bugs or having to crawl around in mud, but it’s definitely still outside of our comfort zone,” she explains.
“And also, you know, you’re pushing yourself because, ultimately, the prize is winning money for a charity that your heart is so on the line for.”
Celebrity Apprentice Australia, Sunday, 7pm, Monday and Tuesday, 7.30pm, Nine and streaming, 9Now