'For 15 minutes my heart was breaking:' Schapelle Corby reveals the chilling phone call she received threatening to send her back to JAIL six years after leaving a Bali prison - and why she's lucky to reach 40
Schapelle Corby has opened up about the horrifying moment she received a phone call threatening to send her back to jail three years after she returned to Australia.
The convicted drug smuggler, 43, spoke out about the moment that left her 'shaken up for days' ahead of a television debut in reality show SAS Australia.
Answering a phone call to her Brisbane home in July, Corby initially had no idea it was a scam.
She says the man on the other end claimed to be from the tax office and told her if she didn't pay her outstanding taxes he would send someone to take her to local courthouse.
'For 15 minutes my heart was breaking. I couldn't calm down. I was so, so scared,' Corby told Stellar.
After being sentenced to 20 years in a Bali prison in 2005 for trying to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into the tourist hotspot in her boogie board bag, Corby was released on parole in 2014 and eventually deported to Australia in 2017.
However, one slip up from the anonymous caller tipped off the former Gold Coast beauty therapy student to the hoax.
The man told her if she didn't pay the money she could go to jail for six years and that he was sure she wouldn't want that because he had pulled up her file and could tell she was a law-abiding citizen with no criminal history.
A shocked Corby bluntly told him of her past which put a swift end to the attempted scheme.
Despite catching the conman out on his scam, Corby said call still left her rattled for days afterwards.
Pictured: Schapelle Corby shares a rare photo with boyfriend Ben Panangian
Corby has shied away from media attention since returning to the country, moving in with her mother in Brisbane and making resin clocks which she sells online
Her reaction is just one reminder, she says, that even though she has led a quiet, comfortable life in her home country for the past three years, the nine years she spent in Bali's infamous Kerobokan prison have left a lasting mark.
This, she revealed, is the reason she decided to join Seven's new reality show SAS Australia, which puts contestants through grueling physical and mental challenges.
'I knew I was strong physically, but I've suffered severe catatonic mental illness. There's always this little thought in the back of my head that I could lose my mind again,' Corby said.
Having created her 'safe bubble' since returning to the country, Corby explained that she viewed competing on the show as the ultimate test of whether she was cured of her mental illness.
That bubble includes her dog 'Princess' - the recipient of her motherly instincts.
Corby explained that the years she spent in prison along with her Indonesian boyfriend, not likely to be granted an Australian visa because of a criminal history has resulted in no children - which does play on her mind.
'I don't put too much emphasis on thinking about what I've lost. If it's possible for me to have a child, OK, but I'm not going to dwell too much because there's nothing I can change about that. But I could be still young enough.'
She has shied away from media attention since returning to the country, moving in with her mother in Brisbane and making resin clocks which she sells online - an admittedly symbolic hobby.
She does have a small circle of girlfriends with whom she socialises, not to mention an Instagram following of more than 164,000 followers.
Prison, she acknowledges however, has left her without the initiative to make plans along with a sense of agoraphobia - a residual effect from waiting out the days between meals and exercise breaks in her cell.
Australian Schapelle Corby is escorted by Indonesian Police into a Denpasar courtroom to hear the prosecutor's sentence demands on April 21, 2005
She also acknowledges she is lucky to have had a family who supported her, saying her sister Mercedes put her life on hold to tirelessly campaign for her release and that she doubts she would have survived without her.
In a blunt admission she said she did not think she would see her 40th birthday during those dark days in prison where her mind would switch between fantasizing about escaping on a rope dropped by a helicopter and suicidal thoughts.
The helicopter fantasy, it turns out, prevailed though not quite in the way she imagined.
In one scene from SAS Australia the contestants, including Corby, are dropped from a helicopter into freezing water and told to swim to shore.
One of a number of extreme stunts the contestants go through on the show with Corby saying her fellow participants were a highlight for her and that she hoped they will keep in touch.
Former Biggest Loser trainer Shannon Ponton she mentions specifically as having selflessly helped during one moment where she was struggling to carry her military backpack while jogging up a hill.
Other contestents include former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen along with Australian rugby player and former Bachelor star Nick Cummins.
SAS Australia premieres on Monday night.
Other contestents apart from Corby include former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen along with Australian rugby player and former Bachelor star Nick Cummins. SAS Australia premieres on Monday night
