I’m A Celebrity star Adam Thomas revealed he is now in therapy after being ‘broken’ by David Haye in the jungle. The Emmerdale actor shared his side on his new podcast
11:35, 22 Apr 2026Updated 14:22, 22 Apr 2026
Adam Thomas reflects on his time in the I’m a Celeb South Africa jungle
Adam Thomas has revealed that he turned to therapy after his experience with David Haye on I’m A Celebrity… South Africa left him “broken”. Speaking on his podcast, the actor said he’s been changed ‘forever’ over his ordeal and camp that left him asking ‘How am I letting some other person do this to me?’
The Emmerdale star, who suffers from psoriatic arthritis, didn’t have the easiest time of it in the jungle. In uncomfortable scenes, he became the target of the Hayemaker’s insults when he ruled himself out of a Bushtucker trial over illness.
His campmates rallied around after David branded him “useless”, insisting that he didn’t “give a s**t” if he was unwell – a move that left viewers threatening to turn off.
Adam, 37, who almost left the show during an explosive row with Jimmy Bullard, has now unpacked his stint on the ITV series in the latest episode of his At Home With The Thomas Bros podcast, admitting that the situation “f***ed” with him.
READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity star quits days before final with campmates in tearsREAD MORE: David Haye confronted over I’m A Celebrity behaviour in unaired scenes
Adam Thomas became emotional as he opened up about his I’m A Celeb stint(Image: At Home With The Thomas Bro’s/YouTube)
“It was an amazing experience, don’t get me wrong, and I don’t regret any of it. But again, there’s moments in there where I just have a bit of a tough time in there with one of the campmates,” he told brothers Scott and Ryan Thomas.
“I know for a fact, I’m not the same person as I was when I went into the jungle, to when I came out. It’s changed me and that’s no over-exaggeration. It’s changed me. I’m in therapy now because of it.
“It’s f***ed with me mentally because I just thought, ‘How is this happening? I’m a 37-year-old man.’ I’m like, ‘How am I letting some other person do this to me in here?’
“I think, in a different environment, on the outside if this happened to you, you’d go, ‘Oh alright, he doesn’t like me, I’m going to leave the situation’, but because you’re in an environment like that, there’s nowhere to hide. You just have to grin and bear it.”
I’m A Celeb fans slammed David for his comments(Image: ITV)
Adam explained that he asked his therapist why he was unable to “stick up for himself”, and learned that he was constantly putting everyone else ahead of himself, and didn’t want to “bring attention” to his struggles.
“So I just took it,” he said. “I just took it, and took it, and took it, until eventually it got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m literally at breaking point here.’
“I remember saying to him, ‘I can’t talk to you anymore bro, if you’re not going to apologise for what you did’, and I reeled off all the things that he did, and he knew exactly why he did it.
“I was like, ‘Are you not going to apologise?’ and he was like, ‘I was trying to teach you a lesson’ and I was like, ‘I don’t need a lesson off you bro’.
Adam struggled throughout his return to I’m A Celeb(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Tearing up, he told his siblings that David was “mindf***ing him constantly”, causing him to isolate himself in camp until the athlete was booted out – which felt like “a weight had lifted”.
Wishing that he defended himself sooner, Adam added: “If I saw that happening to anyone else, I would stick up for them but I just couldn’t do it for myself. I just became like a little kid again.”
Adam said after reaching ‘breaking point”, he had a chat with David about what was getting him so down that was not seen on TV. He said: “I was like ‘Well, bro, I’m I’m not going to I can’t talk to you anymore, bro. If you’re not going to apologize for what you did,’ and I reeled off all the things he did. I said ‘Are you not gonna apologise?’ and he was like ‘Well, I was trying to teach you a lesson.’
“He comes over to me and he goes, ‘You know what? I’m sorry, Adam. And that meant so much to me. I swear down, the guy’s got a heart of gold.
“He really opened up to me and he explained why he is the way that he is and all this stuff. And I don’t want to go into it. It’s not for me to talk about, but everyone’s different and everyone is gonna react different in a different environment.
“I’m not saying what he did was right but I can understand why he did it and unfortunately for me, I was just on the other end of it. I remember when he left camp, it was just like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”
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