After weeks of tension, this year’s biggest Celebrity Treasure Island rivalry came to a head last week when actress Lynette Forday and sports icon Dame Susan Devoy took their war of words into the elimination arena.
Squash champion Susan took out the win and speaking to the Weekly after her exit from the show, Lynette has her head held high but admits, “I was really disappointed. Of all the people to lose against…”
It has been a roller-coaster ride for the Shortland Street legend on the tough TVNZ 2 reality competition, which sees 21 celebrities battling the elements and each other to win $100,000 for their chosen charity.
Lynette, who is mum to 17-year-old Lucia, is the first to admit she’s the last person anyone would expect to sign
on to the show.
“I don’t like the outdoors,” Lynette tells with a grin. “Maybe that makes me the best contestant because all the things that I am are completely incompatible with what is needed. I was so out of my depth.
“My reaction watching the first episode was, ‘Oh, my God, everyone’s going to hate me,’ because I rightly so came across as a total princess. But as it’s progressed, I’ve started to enjoy it.”
Despite being so far out of her comfort zone, Lynette says she started the show full of hope, especially when she was picked as captain of team Kauri. “The first day was exciting – there was lots of camaraderie, all of us thinking, ‘We can do this, we’ve got this.'”
But the excitement was short-lived when Susan arrived on the scene as an intruder not long after. From the moment the former Race Relations Commissioner arrived in the camp, the pair did not get along.
Lynette, 54, describes herself as a bit of a loner and was already struggling with being around people 24/7, but the added pressure of her constant clashes with Susan made the experience even more difficult.
“It was immediate and it was really hard,” confesses Lynette, who rose to fame as Dr Grace Kwan – Shorty’s first Asian character. “I wasn’t sure what it was about me that pushed Susan’s buttons.
“We’re very different people. I’m unashamedly feminine and quite a girly girl. I love all the things that go with that and I have a feeling that those things annoyed her a bit.”
As Shorty’s Grace Kwan, alongside Carmen (Theresa Healey).
So when Lynette made it to the merge and found herself on a different tribe, she didn’t blanch when her team suggested she be the person to take out Susan in the elimination challenge. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t nervous. “It was terrific to be put up against her because I thought, ‘Great, I can finally have a go back.’
“I don’t know if the audience can tell, but it is terrifying because you don’t know what you’re going to have to do. All of the challenges are physically really hard.”
Lynette and Dame Susan may not have liked each other, but they did their charities proud.
Though Lynette, a former ballerina, is an avid Pilates-goer, she is realistic that being strong for her size doesn’t mean much against the bigger competitors. She says she could barely pick up the metal grapple used to haul in the puzzle pieces in that final challenge. And though she put up a good fight, Susan bested her in the end.
With some time to reflect on her clash with Susan, Lynette diplomatically concludes,
“I’m trying to have some grace about it. Not everybody is going to get along in life.”
While she still does the odd acting job, Lynette’s main passion these days is using her drama and public speaking skills to help children build their confidence. The kids she works with and the ones who are helped through her chosen charity Sticks ‘n’ Stones, a bullying prevention organisation, are the driving forces behind her efforts on Treasure Island.
“One of the reasons I did the show was for those kids. I wanted them to be proud of me,” says Lynette, who was often called names as a child. “I’m aware of what I went through as a child and I coach the kids I work with on how to stand up against those same things.”
Despite the conflicts and the less-than-ideal living conditions, Lynette says she would sign up for Celebrity Treasure Island again in a heartbeat.
“I wished I could have been there a little longer, but I lasted much longer than I thought I would, and I was really looking forward to a flushing toilet,” she admits with a laugh. “It was such an adventure.
“The thing I loved about it was being thrown into things that I wouldn’t normally do – or eat – in a million years.”
Celebrity Treasure Island airs Monday – Wednesday at 7.30pm on TVNZ 2.
