It wouldn’t be The Block without an alleged cheating scandal, contestants threatening to leave and enough drama to have us questioning how we’re only one week in.
And this time, it was Chantel and Wyatt who found themselves at breaking point, with the couple seriously considering walking away from the show.
During the first room reveal on Sunday, the couple were furious after being told they had spent $20,700 on their guest bedroom — despite believing they’d spent around $12,500.
As it turned out, they weren’t actually $8,000 over budget. An invoice from their builder had been counted twice, meaning the figure they’d been given was simply wrong.
But by that point, Chantel and Wyatt felt their concerns hadn’t been taken seriously, and they were questioning whether they wanted to stick around for the competition.
Things got serious pretty quickly.
The couple refused to return to site on the following day while their builders were also told to pack up and head home for the day.
While viewers watched the fallout unfold on screen, there was one important moment they didn’t see — and it ultimately changed everything.
Fan-favourites Jolene and Adam spoke to WHO about what happened.
The off-camera moment viewers didn’t see
Blockhead Adam decided he wasn’t ready to watch them leave and stepped in.
“I took five minutes to think about it and I was like, ‘I don’t want them to go’ because if I put myself in their shoes, if you got home and you regretted it, it was too late,” he explained to WHO.
For Adam, The Block was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he didn’t want Wyatt and Chantel to make a decision they might later look back on and wish they hadn’t.
“You know, it mightn’t be five weeks, five months, [or] it could have been five years, and you could have reflected back on it and gone, ‘Oh no, what did I do?’” he said. “I didn’t want them to get home and, you know, have regrets,” he added.
It was a simple intervention, but it came at a pretty crucial moment.
Wyatt and Chantel ultimately decided to stay
After the production error was uncovered, Scotty Cam and Executive Producer Julian Cross sat down with Chantel and Wyatt and apologised for what had happened.
While things got pretty tense in the beginning, the chat eventually appeared to reassure the couple that production understood why the mistake — and the way their concerns had initially been handled — had affected them so deeply.
And, thankfully for The Block, they ultimately decided not to throw in the towel… yet, at least.
The budget blunder has since sparked plenty of discussion among Block fans, but when Wyatt and Chantel were genuinely at the point of walking away, it was Adam who gave them another perspective.
Because sometimes, apparently, all it takes to stop someone from quitting The Block is another Blockhead reminding them just how much they might regret it.
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