It’s likely that any couple would tear their hair out after spending weeks on end racing across a continent, joined at the hip, with no escape.
But for engaged couple Rob Mills and Georgie Tunny, their latest stint on The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition has only brought them closer together.
The pair, who are competing on screen by travelling through Asia in support of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation, described the experience as both gruelling and exciting. “It was the best thing [and] the hardest thing we’ve ever done,” Georgie shares with WHO.
The race, Georgie admits to WHO, was a rare chance to simply be together. “It was wild, and it was also the most amount of time that we’d spent with each other for years,” she says, citing their hectic careers with Rob on tour and Georgie juggling travel for work. “And it was awesome.”
For Georgie, one of the unexpected joys of the competition was the closeness it brought.
“On the race, you were in each other’s pocket the whole time, which was also – it was really lovely to do it with your person,” she gushes.
It wasn’t just their own relationship that grew stronger – Rob and Georgie have also forged unexpected bonds with their fellow racers.
“I didn’t expect for us to love all the couples as much as we did,” she admits. “I thought maybe my – I would describe it as unattractively competitive – nature might get in the way of forming bonds with the other contestants. But, to be honest, we’ve [made] some legit friends – and that was really surprising to me.”
Since returning home, the pair have already caught up with several Melbourne-based castmates and are planning a big watch party to relive the adventure together for the finale.
However, the experience certainly wasn’t a cushy feat. The pair trekked through Asia shouldering heavy backpacks, taking on stomach-churning food challenges and powering through demanding physical tasks while trying to keep their sanity – and their relationship – intact.
“I think half of our luggage was protein bars, because Robert doesn’t do well with low blood sugar – he [gets] very hangry,” Georgie reveals with a laugh.
“I thought, instead of being hangry on camera – best just to eat. No one needs to see that guy,” Rob adds to WHO.
When asked what they had learnt about each other through the experience, Rob sweetly admits, “I think for me, it cemented how resilient Georgie really is. Sure it comes with being ‘unattractively competitive’, but she’s capable of so much.
“She never gave up on any challenge, not one, even when they were really, really hard and difficult – mentally, physically. I was so, so proud of her for that. She never gave up, even when I laughed at her a lot.”
As for Georgie, the adventure seems to have confirmed what she already knew.
“It just cemented that we are each other’s person,” she says. “I don’t think that was ever in doubt, but I think it was a real underlying exclamation point for me.”
How did Rob Mills and Georgie Tunny meet?
Their love story began in 2018, when Rob slipped into the journalist’s Instagram direct messages after spotting her on TV.
“I had been living the single life and going on lots of horrible Tinder dates,” Rob told the The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020. “Then one morning I flicked on ABC News Breakfast and went, ‘Who is that?!’ ”
That initial spark quickly picked up heat. The couple now share a life together in Melbourne and have plans to walk down the aisle after getting engaged in 2022.
Rob remains enamoured, calling Georgie “a sensational human being … funny, a lot smarter than me, she inspires me with her work ethic and who she is as a human,” he added to the same publication.
(The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition airs Mondays at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on 10.)
