The 42-year-old cited excruciating back problems for his surprising decision to leave the course.

“I won’t be the guy to say I could’ve won the show. I gave up, ”he told news.com.au from his home in Bali.

“I had two back operations. When I was told to jump on my neck, I knew it wasn’t going to go well. I threw my back and my hips out and from that point on I was screwed. “

Some 16 years after he rose to prominence when he was convicted of obstructing the course of justice in the murder case of his brother Jai (for which Jai was acquitted after a trial ), and the subsequent release of a doco feature film Bra Boys: Blood is thicker than water, Abberton is once again a character who divides with the broadcast of the Channel 7 series.

One second he was stepping up his efforts to stop women’s boxing fights and choking on talking about his wife and son, the next he was sabotaging his opponents and doing half the push-ups.

But Abberton says there’s a lot of tricky editing and a lot of footage you don’t see.

“It makes us feel like we’ve had internal fights and dramas when in real life these things were like 10 second chats,” he says. “I really liked everyone on the show and would be friends with all of them.

“I was doing a lot more than what they showed, in terms of talking to the girls a lot more than what you saw and helping people. I was there with Heath (Shaw) when he got a little more agitated than you thought, and I was always talking to him and helping him a lot.

“They didn’t show the parts where I was really trying to help people.”

He also says there are “simple things” being manipulated for television, citing an example of him climbing a mountain shouting “yeehaa!”, In a gesture that was criticized by the soldiers.

“How did it really go, they made it look like I was the last one, but I was the first and I was excited for myself to have pulled it off easily,” he says.

“It’s simple things like that that they change, it makes a great TV and I’m here for that but it’s not exactly what you think.”

While he’s fairly light on the criticisms he makes, Abberton admits he had “anxiety” for the past three months before the show aired.

“I want to be clear though, my anxiety is more nervous. It’s not lying in my bed scared. But if I had to tell you the truth, being back in the public eye has been a crazy experience, ”he says.

“As soon as people see it, I get hundreds of messages on social media and dealing with it is really quite difficult.

“Seeing yourself (on TV) every day… The character that I am and the person that I am is hard to see.

“But I laugh at myself. I’m not going there to be a soldier. It’s a TV show. I had the best pleasure I could have in this experience. In the end, I enjoyed it. “

It’s no secret that Abberton had a difficult childhood. He was candid on the show about his abusive upbringing in Maroubra, east Sydney.

He tells us that he was humiliated at school for the clothes he wore. “They were like, ‘Don’t dress like Koby,'” adding, “What they didn’t understand was that I was even lucky to have lunch that day.”

Despite the early trauma, Abberton was determined to change this cycle of suffering after the birth of his son, Sunny Makua, six years ago with his wife Olya.

“I plan to be a good dad for my six year old son now, and I plan to be a good dad for my 50 year old son,” he says.

“It all comes down to me working on it. I consciously try to go out with them, to have all the meals at the table, to go out with my wife, to take family trips.

“My wife is from Ukraine and has the nicest family. I learned from their love. Without them, it would be another story.

“I really don’t want to sit here and talk about being a good father, but how did my childhood conceive me? It designed me not to be like any father I knew. I know what it felt like to grow up and I never want to do this to my son.

Abberton left his locality of Maroubra almost 10 years ago in search of a better life in Bali.

Currently, he says Australia is not the place he knows and loves.

“To start, you pay $ 2 million for a brick wall facing another brick wall,” he says.

“I live in a beautiful house over the ocean for an eighth of the price. Australia has become too expensive. Corruption and greed are everywhere.

“I miss Australia and Maroubra like a long lost son. I miss that more than anything.

But that doesn’t mean he’ll be back anytime soon. Not one to mince words, Abberton calls the country’s leaders “disgusting” for their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“How can you have 30,000 people watching a semi-final (NRL) (in Queensland) and then two hours away at Tweed Heads, people can’t work or see their families?” Abberton asks.

“The state of Australia right now… I’ve never seen it in such a disgusting way. We have cowards and dobbers who blame themselves for not wearing masks.

“We have front line nurses who have been working on this thing all along and they’ve had their jobs taken out because they don’t want to get the shot. We are losing our country.

To be sure, Abberton says he is “not a scientist,” but he strongly advocates personal choice.

“I’m not complaining about the virus, I just see the way it was handled. We have waged this war between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

“Australians are my people. I love them. I don’t care about your personal decision. I don’t care if you have two heads. I am with you all. But we must move forward together.

SAS Australia airs Monday through Wednesday on Channel 7