Big Brother VIP's Matt Cooper is 'always putting his girls first'

Matt is best known for his football career, which he carried out throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

He played his entire career with the St. George Illawarra Dragons, with whom he won the 2010 NRL Grand Final.

He also represented New South Wales in the State of Origin, and Australia as part of the Kangaroos, our national rugby league team who compete internationally.

Matt retired from NRL in 2013, but now trains as a UFC fighter.

Matt revealed in 2016 hat he had struggled with addiction to painkillers following a neck injury sustained while helping his father-in-law with a jackhammer.

“I just kept taking more and more. It got to the point where the medication I was taking wasn’t working anymore. My body built up a resistance to it and I just knew it was time, so I confessed,” Matt said of the ordeal.

“Speaking to my wife was really hard to do because I had been lying to ger for months,” he admitted, referring to his wife at the time, Dallas Cooper.

“That was one of the hardest things … to tell my wife the truth – that was harder than actually coming off the drug.”

“I was kidding myself a lot of the time. I kind of knew he was taking something but he always had a reason for what he was taking,” Dallas said of the ordeal.

After more than 20 years together, Dallas and Matt separated very recently, with the news coming out only a month ago, as Matt returned from filming the show.

The split, which was reportedly an amicable one, took place shortly after Matt and Dallas returned from a 10-month road trip around Australia with their two daughters, Indie and Starr.

Neither have addressed the split publicly, and social media is still full of pictures from their lengthy trip, which began in July last year.

“We will be sharing this great adventure with our followers. We both left our jobs, saved our money, bought an RV, pulled the girls out of school and hit the road! Wish me luck!” Matt wrote as the family took off.

“Dad had to step aside today as every so often Indie’s birthday falls on Father’s Day,” Dallas wrote on their travel account Indie’s birthday, which coincided with Father’s Day.

“But that just epitomises the kind of Dad he is … always putting his girls first,” she wrote.

When they returned from their travels, Dallas took to Instagram to reflect, writing: “I am absolutely sure about one thing – my future holds so much more Australian travel.”

“It was where I felt free and at my calmest. For now it’s back to school, work and the daily grind but only with the intention of building a longer-term simpler life,” she shared alongside a photo of her daughters.

While more details of the split might come out on Big Brother VIP, for now it seems this family unit remain supportive of each other.