In 2019, Australian Survivor star Lee Carseldine suffered what he has described as the “worst year of his life”.
A brutal break-up with fellow Survivor contestant El Rowland and his mother’s tragic death meant the 44-year-old took an emotional battering.
WATCH: The heartbreaking moment Survivor’s Lee finds out his mum suffered a stroke
But now, the former cricketer has revealed his life has taken a positive turn as he debuted his new girlfriend.
Taking to Instagram, Lee shared a couple selfie with his new partner Sanchia, and wrote alongside it, “The last 18 months have been a bit rough but all is starting to come good.”
Sanchia shared the same photo on her Instagram Story, confirming the relationship.
“Cat’s out of the bag. Happy girl to have you by my side,” she wrote.
Several of Lee’s fellow Survivor All Stars cast members flooded his comments section to congratulation him on his blossoming romance.
“Wow they do look good .. I’m very happy for you guys .. you must come to the farm for a night,” Mark “Tarzan” Herlaar wrote, while Felicity Egginton simply penned, “So happy for you.”
John Eastoe added: “Can’t wait to meet my new old girl! Proud of you dad. #fatherson”.
In February, Lee spoke to TV WEEK after the difficult period he had been facing in recent months.
“It was the worst year of my life,” he said. “Sometimes you get thrown curve balls, and life threw a lot of them at me last year.”
In addition to his well-publicised split with El, who he met on season one of Australian Survivor in 2016, Lee received news of his mother Elizabeth suffering a stroke while competing on Australia Survivor: All Stars.
Emotional scenes on the show featured Lee receiving the heartbreaking phone call about his mother’s condition before he was forced to depart the competition.
In an interview with Now To Love shortly before the episode aired in March, Lee admitted he was still coming to terms with his grief.
“It’s a tough one where the grieving process is always very, very tough and I’m not even halfway through that at the moment,” Lee explained.
“There is a ‘first’ of everything without a loved one, whether it be a first birthday of that year or a particular event without that person. So at first, it’s the first year without if you know what I mean.”