Jane Moore reveals verdict on I’m A Celebrity campmates including star nursing secret struggle and her winner
SUN columnist Jane Moore has given her verdict on each of her campmates following her I’m A Celeb eviction last night.
The Loose Women panellist, 62, heaped praise on all of her new pals after losing the public vote.
She had hoped to make it past the first vote-off, so was gutted to be the first celeb to leave the Aussie jungle after 15 days.
But she loved her time on the ITV show – because of the people she got to spend it with.
Here, Jane told The Sun’s Amir Razavi her thoughts on the 11 celebs she camped with in an exclusive interview with us.
COLEEN ROONEY
“I’ve got a new title for her – I’m bored of Wagatha Christie. I have nicknamed her Col-Umbo.
“She’s quiet, she’s quite reserved, but underestimate her at your peril.
“She’s the absolute hub of the Rooney household. She runs it like a well-oiled machine.
“If she’d been able to do every job in that camp, she would have had that camp running like a well-oiled machine as well.
“We had a trunk with lots of stuff in, and it was totally shambolic when other people were doing it. She got in there and it looked brand new. Everything had its place. If she’d had labels, they would have been on.
“She has a very organised mind, and I’m so pleased because I think elements of Col – as I now call her, because we’re on that level – that the public have seen have been quite cartoonish.
“Like, you know, Wagatha Christie, footballer’s wife, whatever.
“So I think for her to go into something and show herself and how strong she is and how lovely she is… I was really happy to see that.”
DANNY JONES
“Danny is absolutely delightful. I’ve just spent a bit of time with his mum and I just said to her, ‘He’s an absolute credit to you’.
“He’s such a lovely man. He’s very positive and sunny and smiley.
“But underneath there, there’s quite a complex person. I think he’s going to take a lot out of being in the jungle. I did ask him, what will you be taking home from this?
“He said that ‘I need to just be in the moment more with my family, and just in life’, because, he said, ‘I’m always working and fretting about work’
“And he said, ‘I realise now that that’s less important and that what’s important is this kind of stuff, just hanging out with good people and having good chats’.”
DEAN McCULLOUGH
“Dean is an absolute powerhouse of positivity. He’s funny, he’s entertaining, he’s caring. But most of all, he’s himself.
“In a quiet moment I had with him at some point, he said he got badly bullied at school.
“And he said to me, ‘I sometimes worry that people think I’m too much’.
“And I said to him, ‘You must never feel that. That’s their problem, not yours’.
“He’s he’s a really special person, Dean.”
BARRY McGUIGAN
“Barry is a fighter from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. I kept glancing at him… he’s got a bit of Terence Stamp meets Sean Connery in him.
“But if you are a friend of Barry’s, you’re sorted because Barry will always be on your side.
“He’s an absolute grafter. And he really struggled with being leader because he wasn’t allowed to do anything. He just wants to do everything all of the time.
“A really, really lovely man who’s been through a very tough time personally.
“So it was nice to see him being appreciated in the camp and having a few belly laughs. He and Danny really bonded.”
OTI MABUSE
“Oti is Mrs Positive Energy.
“I have learned the salsa, I learned the Charleston, I learned something else… I did stretching classes.
“She is a fabulous woman. The first week she was just like, switched on the whole time. And then week two, you saw a whole other different Oti.
“She sort of just chilled out, got loads of sleep – because she’s got a new baby daughter who’s only one – and she figured, you know, babies that age haven’t got a clue where you are.
“She wants to have more children, and she said, ‘If I don’t do it now, I probably won’t’. So she wanted to take the opportunity for herself.
“I think she’s had a great time, but she’s just chilled, she’s not so switched-on now. She’s just a delight.”
REVEREND RICHARD COLES
“God, I had such deep chats with Richard.
“We talked religion, we talked politics, we talked about Margaret Thatcher. We had so many chats.
“He’s a very, very interesting man.
“He was in The Communards and he joined a monastery – I mean, you couldn’t get two more extreme things in life.
“I kept calling him the Irreverent Reverend. He’s like me: travels a lot, he loves being around people, but he also likes to have his own space occasionally.
“I think he was very apprehensive about being with a lot of people 24/7, but he just kept saying he couldn’t believe how easy and settled he felt because everybody was just so nice to him.”
MAURA HIGGINS
“Maura is an absolute scream. Oh, my God.
“I did a trial and a challenge with Maura, and the whole thing is about, sort of, managing Maura’s anxiety, really.
“Even just going into the trials and the challenges, never mind actually when they’re happening.
“But she has a turn of phrase, she’s hilarious, she swears like a trooper.
“All the crew, the guys doing the filming, were just laughing because she’s so funny.
“And she’s 100 per cent herself, which I really, really like, you know, in all her all her frailties and all her good bits. She’s 100 per cent authentic.”
MELVIN ODOOM
“Melvin is very under the radar.
“Sometimes you don’t notice that Melvin is there because he’s not begging for your attention. He’s an absolute grafter. He gets it done.
“He’s not one of those people that comes up and goes, ‘Look what I’ve done, everyone’. He just goes up and down with the water pot, puts it where it needs to be, comes and quietly sits down, occasionally goes off and has his quiet moments.
“But if you talk to him, he is the loveliest, loveliest guy. Just very respectful of women, very kind, very considerate, always asking how you are, only talks about himself when you ask him.
“I would love Melvin to get into the final. I hope that people notice Melvin, because he doesn’t ask for attention. So they’ve got to go looking for him.”
TULISA CONTOSTAVLOS
“Tulisa, The Female Boss. That is a title well-earned. Tulisa is a tough cookie.
“We’re alike in a lot of ways, in that we don’t let people in very easily.
“But when we do, you’re in for life. And I’m hoping, and I think, I’m in.
“Because we had a lot of great chats and she’s had a lot of tough times in her life – some of which are well-documented.
“She did a documentary about her mother’s mental health struggles and being a young child coping with that, and she’s a fighter.
“She’s got to where she is now by self-therapy, if that is a thing, and she’s in a really strong place.
“And the fact that she got to the end of it and she’s still in there is an absolute credit to her fighting spirit.”
ALAN HALSALL
“Alan, oh, my God. Inspector Gadget!
“We all came up going, ‘There isn’t a plug in the bath. They’ve given us a bath, but no plug’. Alan: ‘I’ll make a plug.’ He makes a plug.
“‘There’s leaves in the shower’. Alan: ‘I’ll make a broom. I’ll sweep out the leaves’.
“‘Our clothes won’t dry’… ‘I’ll make a washing line’.
“He is just so resourceful and practical. He’s a great guy and he’s a hard worker as well. He helped me a lot.
“Whenever we were allowed, or whenever we thought we could get away with it, he was always there helping me lug the washing-up up and down the steps. So he’s a really decent guy.
“And he’s Tyrone from Coronation Street!”
GK BARRY
“She’s very funny and very successful. She’s doing a show in front of 10,000 people on December 15th, and I’m like, ‘Have you written it yet?’. She’s like, ‘Oh, no, I’m just going to busk it’. I’m like, ‘What?’.
“She’s got a huge following of fans, and I could see why.
“She has absolutely no filter, and that’s her thing. She’s hilarious. But again, the first few days, she was very GK Barry.
“And then there was this lovely segue where she became Grace and she had her moments of being hilarious.
“But she was also a lot quieter, didn’t feel the need to constantly be switched on with us all the time, which was great.
“And her speech at the end when she got emotional was very moving, because I think she’s been on a real journey.
“She said that she used to go looking for people that said horrible things about her online, and I’ve given her several pep talks on that.
“I hope that some of it sticks and that she really starts to ignore them – never mind look for it. Ignore the noise and just be who she is and just soar.”