Woman’s Day (Australia)

Reggie and her kids have been evicted.

The reality TV star and single mum is facing a new crisis

- writes LIZZIE WILSON

24

It’s hard to imagine it could d get any worse for Reggie Sorensen, yet last week she e was dealt another cruel blow when she received an eviction notice at the humblee Gold Coast home she shares with her two children.

“I’m so scared,” reveals Reggie,ggie, fighting back tears. “This time I don’t know what to do. It’s made me realise how vulnerable we are… one day your kids are cuddled up and warm and safe and just like that, it could all be gone. I owe my kids a warm bed and a safe house, that’s not too much to ask, is it?”

Reggie, 43, who won $250,000 in the first series of Big Brother in 2003 and fast became one of our mostmos st loved TV stars, can’t fully comprehend­hd she and d her daughter Mia, 10, andd seven-year-old son Lucas, no longer have a place to call home. On top of her other battlesatt­les – Lucas struggles daily withith cystic fibrosis, and Reggie has rapidly apidly diminishin­g eyesight – it seems s too much to b bear. ““It’s hard to believeeve I be became known as the gir girl who survived mu multiple evictions in th the Big Brother house, to 14 years later be fa faced with the real th thing. I’ve had n nightmares ever s since, worrying where w we’re going to go.” Early last week, a after an ongoing dispute with the owner of the home

she’s rented for five years, Reggie found an eviction notice in her letterbox. “It was all I could afford when I hit hard times,” she says. “But it was our home – I hung nice pictures on the walls, and made sure the room the kids share was full of bright colours, and despite all the things that were broken, we all knew it was brimming with love. “I thought I was a great tenant.” Reggie is restricted as to where she can live, because she needs to be close to the kids’ school – she had her driver’s licence revoked due to her vision loss – so she walks them to school and back. “It’s also right on the bus stop that takes me to work – I love my job and can’t risk losing it,” she says of her part-time job in a charity call centre. “I get asked about the Big Brother winnings all the time. It was 14 years ago! “I paid off a house – $100,000 – which ended up in the divorce settlement. I lost $20,0 $20,000 on a property investme investment gone wrong in Sydney. “Work out the mat maths, and it’s not hard to figure out it’s all gone. Like many,ma we live week to week – that’sthat why I’m genuinely afraidaf we will be homeless.” The former fishfi and chip shop owner from Tasmania has even consider considered applying for public housing,housin something she’ssh been loath tot do after spendingsp­end most of he her childhood moving in and out of housing commission homes in her home state.

“I won’t take a house from another family who are doing it even tougher than us. I want my kids to see their mum working hard to keep a roof over their heads – and I truly believe in my heart other Aussie families might need a break more than we do.”

David Vertullo of Profession­als Vertullo Real Estate, which manages the home, says Reggie is a great tenant.

“We will do everything to make sure she gets her full bond back,” David says.

“We have a very big rental roll so I’m confident we can help Reggie.”

‘I was the girl who survived multiple evictions in the Big Brother house…’

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