My Kitchen Rules’ dads Justin and Will talk about their kids, the strategic scoring controversy and the TV show they’d love to make next

Justin and Will never expected to score as highly as they have on MKR. Channel Seven

Justin and Will finished the final instant restaurant round on top of the leaderboard and are now set to battle it out in the My Kitchen Rules semi-finals. But the Sydney dads say they “absolutely” did not expect to do as well as they’ve done in the competition.

“Justin and I love to cook, but we didn’t think we’d be good enough to be on a cooking show where our food would be critiqued by other great cooks and two celebrity chefs,” Will tells TV WEEK. “So that in itself was probably intimidating. But as soon as we got on set and found our feet, we were like, ‘Man, we could elevate our game right now!’ And we just put in the hard work off camera.”
Justin and Will are friends and dads. (Credit: Channel Seven)
Justin and Will are up against Danielle and Marko in the first semi this Sunday, while Lil and Lol meet Maria and Bailey in the second semi on Monday.

Justin tells TV WEEK it was “a shock” when Maria admitted during the final instant restaurant round that she and Bailey had scored strategically. He and Will say they would “100 per cent” rather have been sent home than score strategically themselves.

“My kids are watching this,” Justin explains. “I don’t want them to see that we’re strategically scoring and we’re low-balling people to get ahead. I wasn’t brought up like that.”

“I think Bailey made a comment like, ‘Nice guys finish last,’” Will adds. “I was like, ‘Actually, bad cooks finish last, but anyway…’”
Maria admitted she and Bailey had scored strategically. (Credit: Channel Seven)
Gym-owner Justin is a father of two kids, aged four and two, while former NRL player Will is dad to three, aged 12, 10 and two. Will says his kids are the “worst critics” of his food: “I’ve spent three, four hours in the kitchen and they’ve not touched it.”

However, the two older ones do love seeing him on the hit reality show.

“It’s a bit surreal for them to go to school and say, ‘My dad and his mate are on TV’. They’re enjoying that notoriety.”

Both Justin and Will are keen to do more TV. They dream of making a show like MKR judges Colin and Manu’s Off The Grid, cooking their way around South Africa and Tonga, their families’ countries of origin.

“That would be an insane experience,” Will says.

But, for now, having spent months filming MKR, they just want to spend some time with their families.

“We need to give back to our wives and our kids,” says Justin.