Iain Lee left I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! 2017 co-stars' WhatsApp group after final
Former professional boxer Amir Khan said his I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! 2017 co-star Iain Lee left their campmates' WhatsApp group after the final.
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! alum Amir Khan says co-star Iain Lee left their campmates' WhatsApp group after the show ended.
The former professional boxer also said he had difficulty getting on with the "sly" 52-year-old comedian - who made it to the programme's final - when they did the ITV Australia-based jungle survival show in 2017.
Speaking to Betway, Amir, 38, admitted: "The guy I struggled with was Iain Lee.
"I'm not going to lie. He played a bit of a trick, looking back. He really played the game.
"The funny thing is, we’ve still got a WhatsApp group with all of us from the show on it. As soon as he left the jungle, he exited the group.
"He tried to play innocent and make himself look like someone people should feel sorry for. I didn’t like that.
"Honestly, I’m a real person. If I do something wrong, I put my hand up and apologise.
"But him - he struggled with me. He wanted to be seen in a certain way, like, “Oh, I messed up, but feel sorry for me.”
"He was sly."
Amir - who finished in fifth place on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! - insists he had no game plan to be crowned the winner, which 30-year-old reality TV star Georgia "Toff" Toffolo went on to become.
The former sportsman explained: "Some people on that show came in with a game plan. I didn’t. I didn’t know what to expect.
"So, when I ate the strawberries, I didn’t think twice. Even if Iain didn’t go back and tell them, no one would’ve known - except the people at home.
"It was a sly move from Iain, which made the viewers think I was the bad guy. But I didn’t need to own up to it – no one in camp knew.
"Imagine how funny it would've been when we all left and were like, 'Wait, you ate the strawberries?!' That would’ve been hilarious."
Amir is referring to the infamous strawberry gate, caused by him and Iain.
The duo won the fruit and some cream after completing a Dingo Dollar Challenge, and they decided to scoff it all without telling their fellow campmates.
Amir and Iain initially told their co-stars they failed the Dingo Dollar Challenge, however, Iain could not keep the secret and later confessed to their campmates that they won the treat, and he thought it would be "really funny to eat them all on my own".
To make matters worse, Amir then let Hollyoaks actor Jamie Lomas, 50, think the whole thing was Iain’s idea.
And Amir would do the stunt again.
He said: "At the time, when I ate them, I thought, 'Yeah, I’m having them.' I didn’t know the cameras were rolling, and that people back home were going to be watching.
"See, this is the thing – I didn’t realise how big of a show I’m A Celebrity was. I’d never watched it before. I didn’t know how the system worked.
"But when I rewatched what I did, the way it was edited made me look like such a bad person – like I was doing it on purpose to upset everyone in camp.
"But honestly, I was just being silly – a bit boisterous. That’s just who I am.
"Looking back, it made me look bad. But would I do it again? I probably would – yeah, why not?
"But this time, I’d tell them straight, 'Yeah, I ate them – what are you going to do about it?'
"I remember there was Jamie Lomas, Georgia Toffolo, and even Stanley Johnson, Boris Johnson’s dad.
"Even if I did say I ate them, I don’t think they could’ve done anything anyway."
