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I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! has returned with a bang, and viewers have already seen two contestants leave the famous camp within the first 10 days.
It’s fair to say that some of the biggest bust ups that happen on the ITV reality show aren't’ actually shown to the public. With cameras covering every inch of the famous camp, you’d think the eight contestants would have nowhere to hide.
But much to the disappointment of fans at home, there’s actually a lot of scenes that never make it to the silver screen. Across its 20-year reign on the airwaves, ITV bosses have been forced to intervene in their fair share of explosive meltdowns and troublesome rule-breaks.
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As fans tune in to see who will become the next campmate to leave the show this week, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside the darkest backstage secrets that fans may have missed over the years. From sex confessions to smuggled good to foiled escape plans, let’s see what the campmates really got up to behind the scenes.
Begging for meals
Before stars enter the Australian jungle, future campmates are given the “talk of doom” before they sign up for the long-running ITV show. This allows contestants to get to grips with what they can expect during their three-week stint on the festive show.
But more often than not, the thing that surprises stars the most is the surprising food rations. Throughout the shows 20-years history, desperate competitors have begged the film crew for food.
Beloved 2014 campmate Jake Quickenden once told The Sun that he tried to scrounge for food in the camp. He explained: “People start getting hungry, then if it rains people start getting moody.
“Even when you walk into trials the cameramen don’t speak to you. You are that shut off from the world. One of them was eating a Tic Tac and I said, ‘Mate, I couldn’t have a Tic Tac could I?’ and he was like, ‘I can’t give you a Tic Tac I'll get sacked’."
Smuggled goods
Since the show first launched in 2004, campmates are only allowed one luxury item such as a pillow or a photograph of a loved one. But ITV bosses have several stipulations, most importantly being no food items.
But that hasn’t stopped stars from sneaking food past producers. Back in 2012, Hugo Taylor flouted that rule by sneaking in a pile of salt and pepper sachets in the bottom of his backpack.
Model Amy Willerton also managed to sneak in an entire bag of make-up in 2013 – and only got busted 10 days in. TV chef Gino D’Acampo also managed to smuggle in a slew of contraband goodies in his pillow.
He confessed after the show: “I stuffed it with a lot of salt, sugar, four different teas and 10 sachets of coffee. I had it in my shoes as well. I thought, ‘If the security guys catch the stuff in the pillow, I still have the stuff in the shoes’.”
Despite make-up being banned, an exception was made for Georgia Toffolo in 2017 when she was allowed to apply concealer once a day to cover up her acne. A source explained at the time: “Georgia has always had problems with her skin, but her treatment is sun sensitive so she’s unable to use it in the jungle.
“She’s been allowed access to concealer on medical grounds. It’s annoyed other female campmates who are jealous.” Most recently, Gillian McKeith managed to sneak in lots of condiments into camp in her underwear and a condom during the All Star special in South Africa.
After she became the first contestant to be booted from the show, Gillian revealed all the hidden contraband she had hidden in her backpack. Hidden in her knickers was a range of spices garlic as well as salt hidden inside a condom.
Revealing her secret goods to camp, she said: “Sea salt! It’s inside a condom, it was the only way to get it inside… it’s not been used.” Amir Khan added: “Gillian had literally a whole tuck shop in her underpants. So much stuff… the list just went on and on!”
Weird occurrences
During his time on the show, Hugo also claimed that extreme hunger led to some “very weird happenings” in the camp that contestants have vowed to take to the grave. He said at the time: “We had some really weird things happening in the jungle that we unanimously have never spoken about and probably never will.
“Things happened off camera because people had no food, and because there's no food, or they have specific requirements for their diets or their intake of medication specifically. Some people stopped [taking] their medication which caused real problems. Which was never televised. That’s our jungle secret.”
That same year, stand-up comic Brian Conley quit the show after 10 days in the camp due to exhaustion and malnutrition. It is understood the star had to be sedated after he stopped taking his anti-depressants despite producers insisting that he continue to take them.
At the time, Brian said: “It was bad, because it was out of my control, and it was their decision. I couldn’t lie to them. I've taken tablets for 15 years. I feel very proud that I stuck to my guns and that I said, ‘Well, I have to go’.
“I feel very proud that I didn’t saunter out and walk straight into the Versace [hotel] – that I had to be sedated because of exhaustion. I feel very proud that I got through it and it actually made me a much stronger man and you’re looking at someone who doesn’t need anti-depressants and I realise that now.
“ITV is a big, huge company, they have got to do it right and if I’ve brought these tablets in, I've got to take them.”
Secret vitamins
Often the Bushtucker trials are too difficult for the celebrities to complete, leaving them with nothing but a diet of rice and beans to tide them over. But the limited diet has been quite a challenge for some stars to adjust to.
In 2012, Hugo Taylor revealed that ITV bosses were forced to intervene after a particularly unsuccessful week on the show. In order to keep the celebrities healthy, producers swooped in and gave them vitamins to help with the hunger.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan, he revealed: “At one point it was so bad, no one was doing anything. People were just wasting away, lying down doing nothing because they literally couldn’t move. Producers came in with a bag of orange powder which was electrolytes.
“I put some in my drink and it was like taking pure adrenaline. I immediately crashed afterward. But they were like, ‘We had to give them something’.”
Escape bids
What fans may not know is that there is a security boundary which runs around the perimeter of the camp for the contestants’ safety. But that hasn’t stopped some celebrities from breaking the rule and attempting a wild escape plan from the famous camp.
In 2014, English footballer Jimmy Bullard and his co-star Jake Quickenden once broke through the secure boundary and tried to escape – only to be caught in the act and ordered back to the main camp. Jake previously recalled: “Me and Jimmy, actually one day did a runner and wanted to see how far we could get.
“And we got that far that we actually saw somebody, and he was full camouflage, under a bush, with a net, under a netted bush kind of thing. He popped out and said, ‘Go back to camp’.
“We s*It ourselves and walked back to camp. Then we got called back to the Bush telegraph and got told off.”
Sex confessions
Apart from completing a daily Bushtucker trial, the celebrities spend their days lying around and chatting to each other. And it’s fair to say the pair sometimes share more than they mean to.
In 2015, Hollyoaks star Jorgie Porter shared some spicy NSFW news about her sex life, including one instance when she performed a sex act on herself. She revealed a steamy confession about “self-love” but only a snippet of it made it to the silver screen. She later admitted: “I’m gonna regret that.”
Modesty smock
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During the first series of the show back in 2004, ITV bosses were flooded with complaints from fans over the lack of privacy. Since then, contestants are given what is essentially a sheet with a hole cut for a head so they can get changed without flashing their bits to their fellow campers and millions of viewers tuning in at home.
Co-creator and executive producer Richard Cowles said: “I invented what I called a ‘modesty smock’ – basically a sheet with a hole to put your head through. It turns out it was exactly what they wanted. We’ve used it ever since and never changed the design.”
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- I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here
- ITV
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