The Kyle & Jackie O Show
🏕️ "It was very hurtful" George Calombaris talks about underpaying staff...
26 Jan 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What recent projects is George Calombaris involved in?
iHeart Podcasts. Hear more KISS Podcast playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app. You've been watching this over on Channel 10. You've got Julia Morris. You've got Robert Irwin. They're hosting I'm a Slippery to Get Me Out of Here. Great bunch of cast members this year, Jackie.
Yeah, I know.
Going off. It is going off in there. George Columbaris has just arrived. He is in the jungle. He went in on the weekend. Take a seat, George. How are you, buddy? Excellent. Great to see you.
Sit down.
How are you? Currently, we're watching you in the jungle, but you're here. This is already done. You went in as an intruder on the weekend. They must have thought, thank God. Thank God there's a chef. That can make something good out of this horrible menu they offer.
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Chapter 2: How did George Calombaris feel about entering the jungle?
There was a lot of love, that's for sure. And it wasn't for who I am. It was more for what I can do, I think.
I got excited when I saw you were in there. Thank you, mate. You being on there, I was like, I'll watch that. I like you. You're a great man. I used to watch you on MasterChef. Yeah. We've followed you up. And you've had a bumpy ride.
Yes, mate. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Haven't we all? You know what I found fascinating watching you? What I found watching you in there is we got some more clarity to that story. Remember, we didn't remember the, oh, you didn't pay some of the staff properly. And you discovered that yourself. It wasn't like some, the law didn't come along and discover this. George found out himself, Brooklyn.
He realised, and this is what I didn't realise, you only heard in the press at the time and all over the TV news, they love to kick a celebrity, these news departments. We heard that some people weren't paid and it was millions of dollars. What we didn't hear until we watched you in the jungle out of your own mouth.
was say that you overpaid 51% of your employees and underpaid 49% and you want to directify that. Yeah. And you found that out yourself and told everyone and then everyone kicked you to death.
Oh, George. This is ridiculous. That must have been awful to be portrayed in a way that it made you look like you were doing something.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, of course. It was very hurtful. But putting that aside, my 550 team members that were with me right to the end.
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Chapter 3: What did George learn about his staff payment issues?
And now a lot have moved up with me as I'm building back up here in Sydney. They're all with me now. So that for me is more important.
But they're not against you. It was like you came. See, this happened to me once upon a time years ago. An accountant said to me when I swapped accountants, hey, you haven't paid your staff the superannuation. which is a huge internal fine from the government. Instantly, I paid them. But you've got to have these funds available and to self-report like you did. No one said that.
It was almost when it came out, it was like, oh, you've been busted doing the wrong thing. That wasn't the true story. I feel that that's terrible news.
And that's what I love about being in the jungle. I'm not sitting in front of a reporter or someone that's trying to trip me up. I'm sitting around some really lovely people and we're talking honestly and openly. There's no scripts. There's no PR people around you going, be careful, don't say this, don't do that. Yeah, yeah. It's just raw, George.
And that's when you get the truth that comes out watching these shows. It's a real eye-opener.
Who did you get along with in the jungle that maybe surprised you or you didn't think you would?
Yeah, look, you know what? I love, you know, Conchetta's a beautiful girl. You know, Dyson, what a legend. He's a good guy. What a top bloke. And again, he went through his own stuff with that whole Essendon drug scandal stuff and listening to what his family went through, you could sort of understand totally. You know, Matty's a top kid. You know, just don't get married after three months.
What about Denny Hines?
Yeah, we had him on. He was good.
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Chapter 4: How did the media portrayal affect George Calombaris?
Cyrel hit Denny with a bit of pottery at any stage because that's what she did on Max.
Yeah, they're both feisty women.
They're both feisty women. And, you know, this is very unusual, throwing all of us into a jungle. No phone, no nothing. Nothing. You get removed every bit. What you see is what you get.
Do you miss anything? What's law and order? Were you stressing about anything in particular?
Oh, you're always in the back of your mind. You're like, I was more, you know, are my family okay? Because I can't just check in. You know, is everything all right with the restaurants? Is my team okay? You know, that stuff. Yeah. The food stuff for me, I was okay. You know, it was hard for someone like Luke and Dyson, who normally have four or five thousand calories a day, to go down to 800.
It's, you're starving.
Are you allowed to catch a monkey and kill it? Or is there rules there, what you can and can't eat?
Yeah, look, yeah, we're not catching monkeys, that's for sure.
A wild boar?
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Chapter 5: What does George Calombaris think about being in the jungle?
Cocaine. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no spices.
One of them actually looked a bit like that, and that's called salt and vinegar powder. Oh, you took these little extra little delightful things in. Guys, honestly, I want you to tune in. This is the first time I've mentioned it, so it's brilliant. And I worked hard.
uh pre going in to how i'm gonna i watched a lot of breaking bad at home to work out where can how can i do this and it's really weird when you gotta go and try and find little bags from the shops and you're asking people hey plastic bags ziploc but small ones and they're looking at you like dude what are you doing you
You can get them out of your jacket pocket.
It's got a button in it.
Yeah, normally we put buttons in it. Of course, the little button one.
Spotlight, guys. That's where you buy them from. Spotlight. No, I'm not sponsored. Yeah, for no other reason unless you're smuggling into the jungle. Yes, exactly.
Oh, God, you get crafty. Did you realise then I could be a drug smuggler now? Like, I've got it this sorted.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did George face while in the jungle?
Flavour. I'm in the flavour business.
Did you end up doing one of those eating challenges? Yes. See, that's the part I could never do.
You're not good at that, Jackie.
It's brutal. Oh, man, that would be brutal.
When you're eating an eyeball or something like that, people don't realise when you bite into the eyeball, all that black dye squirts down the back of your throat.
Look, I... A penis is something I don't want to be eating. Oh, I was talking about an eyeball. And I never want to eat again.
Well, that's what you obviously ate. Now, Brooklyn, you've never said such a thing. Is it because, like, you guys are starving, you said. Does that make it easier? Okay, I just wanted to know.
What sort of penis are you eating in there? Is it like an ox or something like that? It's huge.
It's a huge oxy. And it looks like one?
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Chapter 7: How does George Calombaris manage his OCD in a group setting?
Hey, was there one thing, George, before going in? Because, like, for me, cockroaches would be the one thing that I would be terrified of them putting on me. You didn't have a big fear of heights or snakes? No.
I think everything in a little amount. I mean, like, it's not normal to, you know, be around snakes. I don't know. Yeah. It's not normal to be around. But you didn't have that one terrifying fear? I think more than anything, like, I've never lived with people before apart from my own family. Like, I've never shared a house with people. What do you think of people?
No, I love humans, but I'm also, I'm OCD.
You've got your own issues. Yeah, I've got my own issues.
So suddenly, how do I be, understand that I'm working with others now? Wait, how do you have, to what degree do you have OCD? Like everything has a place and there's a place for everything. You know, everything's got to be tidy.
You know where your car keys are every day, all day. You know where they are.
Everything, everything, everything.
See, I'm like that.
I know everything, yeah. You know, I know my kitchen's, you know, at the restaurant. I've got a picture of the dry stores next to the dry stores. So it always looks the same.
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Chapter 8: What parenting challenges does George Calombaris discuss?
That's a lot, though. You don't care.
You just don't let it get out of order. Yeah, you don't let it get out. Look, at home, my daughter's room, I've just learnt to not go near it.
Yeah, I know what you mean. How messy are daughters? There's stuff everywhere. They're the worst. It's like, why? Is your daughter messy too? So messy. Get her to pick up her shit. Oh, darling, I just constantly am trying. It's like, what? It's like you. They just don't register or think about it.
Well, you need to start taking away things they like.
I thought that this morning. I thought, I'm going to just start taking away her stuff somehow to get this through.
What's good to do is let them know, if you do this, then this is going to happen. Repercussions. Yeah, repercussions. It doesn't work with my three-year-old, but your 15-year-old should be able to.
15-year-old, she should by now.
So it's great to see, great to watch. Yeah, George, great to see. There's a lot of fun celebrities this year. Check it out. It returns tonight, 7.30 on Channel 10. I'm a celebrity. You're not going to yell out, get me out of here, hopefully. We'll see what happens. Thank you, guys. George Columbaris in the jungle with all the other celebrities. Good to see you, mate. So good to see you.
All the best for you. Y'all been great. Thank you so much.
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