Before single mum Coco Beeby went on Big Brother Australia 2025, she kept her upcoming reality TV journey a secret. Coco was afraid that if she told people around her she was leaving her three kids for a month to compete for $135,000, she would be labelled as “selfish” and judged harshly. Now that she’s walking away from the experience voted as Australia’s winner, she hopes her time on the show will help push other mothers and women to take risks and say yes to new experiences.

“I questioned myself time and time again before I came on the show. I thought [people] were going to judge me… does this look selfish, leaving the kids at home?” Coco tells Refinery29 Australia. “I think for sure we are put in a box… we conform, we confine into these tiny little boxes. You know, [these behaviours] are not acceptable [and you should] stay home. You have to be a mum.” The housemate thinks sometimes, as parents, you believe after you have kids, it’s “all over”, but set out to prove this wrong. “I just would love, love, love for every single [person], especially mums out there, to feel invigorated and powerful in the fact that life doesn’t stop just because you become a mum, and just to remember who you are,” Coco says. “Say yes to things… back yourself.”

AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT

The housemate originally applied for Big Brother Australia when she was 19, but at 30, she feels she was much more prepared. There’s plenty of online discourse about ageing, and for many women, there’s a sense that time is running out once you hit certain milestones. The Big Brother Australia housemate wants to remind everybody that it’s “never too late”, and to stop putting limits on yourself. “If I can do it, anybody can, I’m telling you,” she says. “It’s actually never too late. And that’s one thing that I’ve definitely learned from this. And I hope… one person, at least out there, does find their power just from watching me.”

“

I think for sure we are put in a box… we conform, we confine into these tiny little boxes.

Coco Beeby on societal pressures placed on mothers
”

Coco notes she was surprised that Australia seemed to love her so much, because she grew up as a bit of an outcast without a big friend group. “Your whole life you think you’re a little bit too much for people, you’re a little bit loud, you’re a bit weird,” she says. “But It’s really nice that I guess I’ve touched some people’s hearts, and I hope in doing so, some people are able to feel confident and comfortable within themselves to do the same.”

This doesn’t mean that going into the Big Brother Australia house wasn’t a sacrifice for Coco. In fact, she was separated from her children for even longer than the audience saw. In order to prepare them for being away from their mother for a month, she “weaned” them off by seeing them for less time prior to going into the house. “Instead of doing one week on, one week off, I actually did two weeks off, and then one week on, and then I did three weeks off, one week on,” she reveals. “[But] to see the sheer full emotion of everything [when I won] with the kids crying… they were squeezing me so tight and their little eyes [were] full of tears… I just felt so, so bloody special.”

“

It’s actually never too late. And that’s one thing that I’ve definitely learned from this.

Coco Beeby, Big Brother Australia winner
”

In the end, Coco went on Big Brother Australia partly for herself, partly for her kids, and to prove mothers don’t have to be placed into a box. By walking away with a cash prize, she’s finally going to be able to provide for her kids in a way she wasn’t last year. “It was really difficult to put presents under the tree last year. So this is going to be a really, really beautiful Christmas for my kids,” she says. But even more so, she’s glad to have left them with another gift from her time on the reality TV show. “Resilience was key, and the only way I could show my kids that was not breaking and just to be their mirror,” she recalls. “I’m hoping my kids are able to look at their mum, and I’m instilling resilience in them just by being who I am.”