The Block 2019: Tess and Luke say all is forgiven after lashing 'lazy' edit

The Block’s dark horse couple has come away with a sensational win, despite thinking they might walk away with nothing before filming began on Saturday.

Newlyweds Tess and Luke Struber made headlines last month when they slammed the show and its producers in a News Corp interview, saying they’d been edited to appear lazy and as though they did very little work.

The Cairns couple sold their renovated terrace at 38B Grey Street, St Kilda for a tidy $3.62 million under the hammer, easily snatching the win and the $100,000 extra prize money.

Their reserve, like the rest of the contestants, was $2.99 million, so they pocketed a total of $730,000.

Speaking to Domain after the auctions, Ms Struber said their time on the show had been tough.

“We won the least amount of rooms so we were working with the least amount of budget,” she said. “You know, we were really raw and honest the whole time, especially after watching it back and just seeing how we’ve been portrayed as a little lazy.

“It is hard because you get so upset … we were imagining not winning anything today; nothing at all.”

How much did The Block houses sell for?

• Tess and Luke: 38B Grey Street sold for $3,620,000 (prize money $730,000)
• El’ise and Matt: 38D Grey Street sold for $3,450,000 (prize money $460,000)
• Andy and Deb: 38C Grey Street sold for $3,420,000 (prize money $430,000)
• Jesse and Mel: 38E Grey Street sold for $3,378,000 (prize money $388,000)
• Mitch and Mark: 38A Grey Street sold for $3,374,000 (prize money $384,000)

The pair also had to deal with vitriol from Block fans online, which added to their pain, fellow contestant Andy Saunders said.

“I feel so happy that Tess and Luke took it out because they’ve copped so much lately and so much online. [This] is just the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for them,” he said. “The shit that they’ve been going through, it’s sort of culminated into a beautiful payout.

“They feel like they’ve come out on top.”

Ms Struber said the whole crew was like a big family and that she and Luke found the experience to be a positive one if a little difficult.

“We want to thank all the other contestants for being there with us the entire time. We couldn’t have gotten through it without them; every single one of them. It doesn’t matter if there’s drama,” she said.

Husband Luke said the bonds they made while on the show were unbreakable.

“We made lifelong friends, these people will be a part of our lives in a way that our closest friends and our family will never understand how that works,” he said. “Like, we will give anything for these guys in there, they’re absolute legends. Can’t believe it; we just won the biggest Block ever!”

Next-door neighbours Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie said the constant judges’ feedback that their “party house” would be a potential issue for the Strubers’ buyer pool had not eventuated, given the result.

“We always knew it wouldn’t affect that,” said Mr McKie.

As for what’s next, the winners plan a few more renovations in the years to come, but nothing quite as big as renovating the rundown Oslo hotel.

“I think we’re going to take the rest of the year pretty easy,” Ms Struber said. “We just really want to spend some time together with the family, our friends, our dog, and then we’ll just reassess next year.”

“And we’re going on a honeymoon!” Mr Struber added.