Gogglebox Australia star Isabelle Silbery has taken to Instagram to reveal her terrifying medical emergency that unfolded on a remote island in Fiji.
The 38-year-old was riding a horse on Turtle Island when the disaster struck, sharing that her injuries required her to be airlifted to the mainland for emergency treatment.
“Turns out being on a remote island is bloody scary when you have a horse riding accident, are in immense pain & don’t know how serious things are,” she told fans.
“A medical evacuation helicopter only available during daylight hours so I was carried by local Fijians on a stretcher 2km up a hill in the dark, onto a boat and to my hut. They were all barefoot in the scorching heat, holding my hand & reassuring me I would be ok,” she continued.
“They had a doctor on call and loaded me up with pain relief to get me through the night, even sitting on the beachfront outside the hut to make sure I didn’t need anything. These people were absolute angels.”
She also thanked her husband, Alex Richards, who joined her on the helicopter and “who helped me wee into a glass …the kind of commitment that we’re not in our vows.”
Isabelle went on to reveal how serious the injury was, explaining: “I was choppered to the mainland for scans confirming I’d fractured my spine. One inch in either direction and my life could’ve looked very different today.”
She finished her update with a warning to fans to check their travel insurance. Now home safely, she revealed the incident had left her with a “very large bill.”
“A PSA to check your travel insurance as ours conveniently didn’t cover most activities you would do on holiday, including kayaking, snorkelling, bike riding and of course… horse riding.”
In November the fan-favourite Gogglebox star confirmed that she, her mother Kerry and her eleven-month-old daughter Ruby would not be returning to the show in 2025.
Isabelle and Kerry joined the show alongside Kerry’s mother Emily in 2016, however, the great-grandmother stepped down in 2023 after being diagnosed with dementia.
