Paulini Curuenavuli reveals she was a victim of racial bullying at school

Paulini Curuenavuli opened up about the bullying she experienced at school during an emotional conversation on Monday’s episode of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

The 38-year-old was talking with co-star Jack Vidgen when she spoke about her experience at primary school, revealing she’d been targetted because of her race.

Describing the harassment as ‘bad’, Paulini told Jack, 23, she was often the victim of bullying simply ‘for being black’.

She said last year’s Black Lives Matter movement ‘brought back a lot of really bad memories’, and she was reminded of the bullying she experienced from the ‘the kids and their parents and the teachers’.

‘Primary school was such an awful time for me. Just racial kind of comments and racial calling…’ she began. 

‘I would just get picked on every day. There was this one girl who would always kind of blame everything on me. 

‘She told the teacher that I had stolen her lunch. And then I remember the mother waiting for me after school.’

She added: ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever really dealt with it. I don’t think I have because I feel like maybe it has a lot to do with how I am now.’ 

Paulini said that after she found fame and success through Australian Idol, the school invited her back to talk to the students.

But she said her own experience at the school had been so traumatic that she refused to return. 

‘It’s funny ’cause after Idol they had this massive banner at the school saying, “Go, Paulini!”‘ she recounted. 

‘And they were like, “Would you like to come back and talk to the kids?” And I was like, “No way in the world would I ever step near that school.” Like, that’s how bad the whole experience was for me.’