Gemma Collins is re-entering I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! after she famously quit after just three days in 2014, as she says she has ‘never lived it down’
07:00, 04 Apr 2026Updated 08:17, 04 Apr 2026
For Gemma Collins it wasn’t just a reset, it was redemption(Image: Getty Images)
Swapping your glam squad, your family and your luxury mansion for a hot and dusty hammock in South Africa is a reset by anyone’s standards. But for Gemma Collins it wasn’t just a reset, it was redemption.
Ever since she quit I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! after just three days in 2014, Gemma has been unable to shake off a feeling of failure. So when she was asked to go on I’m A Celebrity: South Africa she pushed her fears aside and went hell for leather towards reclaiming her reputation. Not only did she face her fears and make new friends, she also had an epiphany about family life and realised she needed hormone replacement therapy for perimenopause.
READ MORE: Gemma Collins posts wedding photo after secret ceremony but fans aren’t convincedREAD MORE: Craig Charles reveals devastating family loss ahead of I’m a Celeb return
Gemma, 45, is one of 12 stars signed up for a series of brand new trials and challenges in the South African wilderness(Image: Getty Images)
“It was like I’d committed a murder,” says Gemma of her first jungle experience. “I stepped off the plane and Good Morning Britain was there. I’ve never lived it down. I felt like the woman from Game Of Thrones who has to walk through the streets naked.”
Gemma, 45, is one of 12 stars signed up for a series of brand new trials and challenges in the South African wilderness. She’ll join Adam Thomas, Ashley Roberts, Scarlett Moffatt, David Haye, Beverley Callard, Seann Walsh, Sinitta, Sir Mo Farah, Craig Charles, Jimmy Bullard and Harry Redknapp in the Kruger National Park, home to black mambas, spitting cobras, spiders, scorpions, baboons, hippos, hyenas and leopards.
Ever since she quit I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! after just three days in 2014, Gemma has been unable to shake off a feeling of failure(Image: Shutterstock)
Before filming began in September, Gemma went on holiday to Cyprus with her fiancé Rami Hawash to celebrate his 50th birthday. While she was there she soaked up the last vestiges of luxury and forbade him from mentioning the upcoming ordeal. When they returned home, she arranged for exotic animal handlers to bring snakes and creepy crawlies to her home to help her acclimatise. Still she felt unprepared.
“I did have a moment at Heathrow Airport, where I looked at my make-up artist and said, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ And she literally slapped me. She was like, ‘Get on that plane.’”
Gemma’s wobbles weren’t over. “I did cry for about an hour into the plane journey because I was scared,” says Gemma. “It brought back a lot of deep-rooted trauma from the past.”
With something to prove, Gemma channelled the spirit of pop star, Britney Spears
With something to prove, Gemma channelled the spirit of pop star, Britney Spears. “When I hear the Britney song Stronger , that’s my anthem,” says Gemma. “I’m so proud of myself [for going] back there. I just felt so much stronger this time around.”
As one of our most-loved reality stars, Gemma lives life at a million miles an hour. She’s always posting on her socials, meeting her fans and it feels like every moment of her day is accounted for. When she’s not filming, she’s making a home with Rami and his eight-year-old son Tristan. Then there are the dogs to walk, and the family chickens need feeding.
Despite the lack of luxury, Gemma says the show gave her a much-needed reset, and a digital detox. “I felt I was a child, a young girl again without the pressures of fame or paying the bills,” explains Gemma. “In the jungle atmosphere you realise the good strengths and qualities in you because you’ve got no distractions. I thought, ‘What does make me happy?’ It’s nature, my family, my partner and my stepson, my dogs.”
Gemma will soon chart her marriage and motherhood journey in her new Sky show Four Weddings And A Baby, which she promises will be her most revealing yet. “You see me broken,” Gemma says. “It’s not all plain sailing. It’s very raw. You see that despite the lights, the big house, the glamorous life, you can still be broken in so many ways.”
When she’s not filming, she’s making a home with Rami and his eight-year-old son Tristan(Image: Instagram)
Being away from stepson Tristan during her jungle journey made her realise that she already has the family she’s always dreamed of. “Not many people know I’ve had a stepson in my life since he was three. I’ve never really shown our family life but on a Friday we normally pick my stepson up from school and our weekend starts. In the jungle I could feel from the back of my head those thoughts and memories coming forward on Friday. I had to go for a little walk and talk myself down but those moments come over you and you realise in there what means the most to you. And it’s those family moments,” says Gemma.
The moment the show ended Gemma rang Tristan and flew home to see him the very next day. “I rang him the minute I got out of there and he was delighted,” says Gemma.
Gemma is a prolific social media influencer, but she found being cut off from her phone liberating. Being unable to check her socials meant she formed deeper connections in the camp. “It was the best digital detox,” says Gemma. “It was very spiritual and healing being with nature.”
As one of our most-loved reality stars, Gemma lives life at a million miles an hour.(Image: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock)
Since coming back from South Africa, Gemma has become stricter about her own phone use. “I have a rule that my mobile phone stays in my kitchen overnight now,” she says. “I think one of the worst things you can do is wake up and look straight at your phone and start scrolling. So I make sure I get up, I open my doors, I let my dogs out, I take in the morning. Then once I’ve had a shower and I’m ready for the day, that’s when I’ll action the phone.
“That has helped me a lot. One of the best things that came out in the jungle was actually having a genuine conversation. I heard stories from other campmates that I never knew about them. They found out stuff about me. We laughed. We cried. We genuinely became human again and not distracted by phones.”
While she was away, Gemma also listened to her body more and realised she’s in perimenopause and needs HRT. “I was waking up just bursting into tears in the morning,” says Gemma. “I’ve got nothing to be sad about, but it’s a very strange thing. You just start to notice it coming on. One of my first symptoms was itching in the inner ear. That is what alerted me to it.”
Since coming back from South Africa, Gemma has become stricter about her own phone use(Image: Getty Images)
As much as Gemma tried to address her fears ahead of the show, she still suffered during the trials. “It’s no secret I’m claustrophobic. It is genuine,” she says. “I was put in a water tank with crocodiles and I had a fully blown panic attack in the tank. But then the klaxon went and I was just like, ‘Let’s do this.’ Then the shock set in after. They never got easier.”
One of the biggest trials of the show is surviving on rice and beans. After briefly taking Mounjaro injections last year, until a gallbladder attack stopped her using them, Gemma was used to eating less and was surprised when she left the show to find she’d dropped over a stone. “When they weighed me I’d lost 1st 4lb,” says Gemma.
Before filming began in September, Gemma went on holiday to Cyprus with her fiancé Rami Hawash to celebrate his 50th birthday(Image: Instagram)
One thing Gemma struggled to shake off was the smell of the camp. “You’ve never smelt anything like it,” she says. “I stunk. It was the fish guts, even the dried mealworms have a smell. I had about five showers and one bath to get rid of the smell.”
Once I’m A Celebrity: South Africa has aired and Gemma’s public redemption is complete, she’ll turn her attention to Four Weddings And A Baby . Getting married will be a huge moment for Gemma who has dreamed about her wedding day since she was a little girl. “I can’t believe I left it this long to sort it out,” says Gemma. “But I’m glad I didn’t get married when I was younger.”
As for having a baby of her own, Gemma says perimenopause won’t stop her. “It will happen, it’s just a timing thing,” she says. “Watch the show!”
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