Gemma Collins details her scary but empowering I'm a Celebrity... comeback
Gemma Collins is taking part in the second series of I'm A Celebrity...South Africa next month.
Gemma Collins says her I'm A Celebrity...South Africa experience was scary but empowering.
The 45-year-old reality TV icon lasted three days in the 2014 series of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, but Gemma has now said she was so brave in the ITV all-stars spin-off, that she has called herself Lara Croft.
Gemma told The Sun newspaper's TV Biz column: "This was total redemption for me. I just thought I have to go back into that jungle.
"I was petrified. My make-up artist slapped me at Heathrow Airport because I said, 'I don’t think I can go through with this.'
"But, I took a deep breath, went in strong, and shut it down.
"It’s not the GC in there, it’s Gemma Collins, as you’ve never seen her before. You’ll see me thinking I’m Lara Croft."
Gemma revealed that her I'm A Celebrity...South Africa co-star, former Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp, 79, tricked her into saying: "Get me out of here!"
The Only Way is Essex alum added: "Harry played a dirty prank on me, and I fell for it. This guy deserves an Oscar, because I fully believed him."
Gemma's fellow 2014 campmate Craig Charles, 61, wanted to do the spin-off show - which sees memorable contestants from seasons past live in harsh conditions and do gruesome challenges again - because his original stint was cut short.
The Red Dwarf star said: "The last time it was quite cruelly cut short because my brother Dean passed away, so when they came back and asked, I just thought, yeah.
"But as soon as I hit 60, my stamina has fallen off a cliff. So, I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to do it!"
Elsewhere, former Coronation Street legend Beverley Callard, 68, jumped at the chance to head out to Kruger National Park - where I'm A Celebrity...South Africa is filmed - because she wanted to experience camp life in warmer climates.
Beverley - who did the 2020 series of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! when it was filmed in Gwrych Castle, North Wales, and not Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic - said: "My bedroom was minus one degree! After the first two days, we did not shower.
"It was so cold under that watering can, we didn’t bother.
The dunny had no door! You’d go to wee, and you’d go ‘don’t come near me, I’m still here.'"
Gemma, Harry, Craig and Beverly will be taking part in I'm A Celebrity...South Africa, alongside former professional boxer David Haye, 45, comedian Seann Walsh, 40, and 35-year-old Googlebox alum Scarlett Moffatt.
Waterloo Road star Adam Thomas, 37, four-time Olympic gold medallist long-distance runner Mo Farah, 42, Pussycat Dolls member Ashley Roberts, 44, 1980s singer Sinitta, 62, and 47-year-old ex-Wigan Athletic midfielder Jimmy Bullard, will also be joining them.
I'm A Celebrity..South Africa launches on April 6, and ends with a live final from London, where viewers will pick their I’m A Celebrity…Legend, on April 24.
The show will air on ITV1, STV and ITVX.
