I’m a Celeb viewers don’t miss any drama in the jungle, and this series is shaping up to be an explosive one. An old feud involving Kelly Brook and hosts Ant and Dec has come back into the limelight and got viewers intrigued to see the vibes between them.
On day one, everyone was all smiles as the celebs arrived, and no mention was made of any previous bitterness.
The model and radio DJ shouted “I’m coming for you Ant and Dec” as she parachuted out of a plane into the competition on November 16, but tht was basically the extent of their interaction on camera.
On day two, there was still no acknowledgement. Viewers quickly recalled her previous dramatic and short-lived experience with the duo during her brief stint on ITV’s other show Britain’s Got Talent, however.
So what happened between them?
Kelly, 46, was hired as a judge on BGT in 2009. Despite being introduced to great fanfare as the show’s fourth judge, taking her place alongside its boss, Simon Cowell, and judges Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, her time on the show was short-lived as she was dropped from the panel just a week into her tenure, with the official reason being that introducing a fourth judge complicated the dynamics and didn’t seem to work.
Kelly later claimed that her sudden departure stemmed from upsetting Ant and Dec by not realising they were the BGT hosts. Her former co-host Piers stirred the pot as she went into the jungle, posting on X, “As Kelly Brook goes into the I’m A Celebrity jungle, a throwback to when she was a judge on @BGT for just two days! ‘Be interesting to see how she interacts with Ant and Dec given she blames them for it. They weren’t happy when she asked them what they did on the show…”
Ant and Dec seemed amicable enough when Kelly crashed down on to the beach, but viewers took to X to comment.
“Those wee Geordies failing to acknowledge her on last night’s show tells you a lot about them.” said one. Another commented: “They’re both calculated and arrogant. Dec basically acknowledges in his memoir getting Kelly fired.”
ITV
Ant and Dec had previously voiced their disapproval regarding Brook’s appointment. In their memoir Ooh! What a Lovely Pair, they reflected on her awkward first day on BGT and how things went wrong for her when Kelly asked them about their roles on the show, leading to an uncomfortable exchange.
Writing about Brook’s first day on set, Dec said: “Kelly looked nervous, so I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax. She nodded, then looked at me and said, ‘And what do you do on the show?’ I looked at Simon, who was sat next to me. He turned to Kelly and said, ‘Kelly, you have seen the show, haven’t you?’ To which she replied, ‘Yeah… well, bits.’”
Dec continued: “I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac, but the last person who said, ‘And what do you do?’ was the Queen when I met her at the party for ITV’s 50th anniversary.”
ITV
Kelly said that Ant and Dec “clearly didn’t want” her on the show despite “never being anything but pleasant” to her face.
She continued: “Their egos are such that they were saying to themselves: ‘How dare she think she can come on to our show?’ and since then they’ve been very vocal about their displeasure at me being there.”
She also said that, after leaving the show, “there was nothing I could do in this country” as “the people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec and that was it.”
In Ant and Dec’s autobiography, Dec questioned why Brook had been hired as a judge: “We had two questions: ‘Why is there a fourth judge?’ and ‘Why is it Kelly Brook?’ None of them could answer us.”
Explaining why they were so displeased, Dec said: “Obviously, as hosts of the show, we have to justify that kind of thing to the audience, and no one could give us a good reason why Kelly was on board.
“The simple answer was that Simon, without talking to anyone, had decided it was a good idea. We didn’t agree.”
I’m a Celebrity is on nightly on ITV and ITVX at 9pm.
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