The season 15 premiere of Big Brother had us falling in love with Regina ‘Reggie’ Bird all over again.
The Tasmanian pocket-rocket – who won the series in 2003 – made her grand return at the top of the episode, walking into the house on the arm of fellow former winner Tim Dormer.
“This may be a new game, but I’m still the same old Reggie,” she could be heard saying at the beginning.
“I think everyone fell in love with me because I was a little Aussie battler, and I related to a lot of people.”
And while she’s back to charm us on screen, Reggie’s ‘Aussie battler’ status has been well-earned in the years between her appearances on the show.
She’s been through divorce, a series of scary medical issues, and is currently raising a child with cystic fibrosis.
Here’s what Reggie’s life has looked like for the past 19 years.
Reggie left her home in Tassie to go on Big Brother, where she worked as a manager of a fish and chips shop.
After winning the $250,000 prize, Reggie’s aspirations shifted, and she soon divorced her husband, Adrian, and moved to Sydney.
However, the move quickly presented its own challenges.
“I left everything to Adrian and moved to Sydney. I couldn’t get a job for about two years after the show because no one would take me seriously,” she said on the Not Here To Make Friends podcast.
She spent a lot of her money on rent and lost even more of it when she was the victim of fraud. A TV producer, who claimed he was hoping to have Reggie host a travel series, ended up taking $40,000 from her.
The silver lining was meeting her second husband, Dale Sorensen, in 2007 – four years after her win.
They have two children together – Mia, who is 15, and Lucas, who is 12.
Lucas suffers from cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening disorder that sees him needing daily care.
“It’s mentally physically draining on Lucas, so I have to stay strong for him,” she told our sister site, Now to Love.
“It’s a constant battle to try and get weight on him, so he has to drink supplements and have a diet high in calories and fat. I hope he will live past 37 years of expected time,” she said.
She made another devastating confession about their struggles in 2018, speaking to the Who Are You podcast.
“At the moment, he’s saying ‘Mummy, I don’t want to live. I don’t want to live with cystic fibrosis. I don’t want to be here’. A little nine-year-old saying they don’t want to live … it’s not good,” she admitted.
And while she has been caring for Lucas, Reggie has had her own medical struggles.
Reggie revealed her battle with retinitis pigmentosa in the premiere episode of Big Brother, explaining that she’s now lost all her peripheral vision and night vision.
“I could wake up tomorrow and it’s going to be gone,” she admitted tearily.
“Sometimes when I forget to take my cane to the shops and I bang into people … they look at me because I’m so young and just think I’m being rude,” she told The Daily Edition in 2016.
“Even when you’re getting a taxi – I’ve had a few say, ‘you’re only going up the road, why can’t you walk?’ Things like that upset me.”
Despite her many challenges, Reggie is still embracing life, and Big Brother.
“Australia loves me,” she said on the show, with a laugh.
“Big Brother’s in my blood. I can’t believe I’m here.”
You can watch Reggie on Big Brother Monday-Thursday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7Plus.
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