Entertainment

Giovanna Fletcher: My children thought we’d be moving to I’m A Celebrity castle

The podcast host said that thinking about her family helped get her through the trials on the programme.
The podcast host said that thinking about her family helped get her through the trials on the programme. The podcast host said that thinking about her family helped get her through the trials on the programme.

Giovanna Fletcher has said she had to tell her children they would not be moving into the I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! castle following her victory on the programme.

The podcast host said they thought they would be relocating to the site where the programme was filmed after she won.

“They actually thought that maybe we’d all be moving into the castle, seeing as I’m now the queen and that they are all princes,” she told ITV’s Lorraine.

Emma Willis Launches Collection with Next – London
Emma Willis Launches Collection with Next – London Giovanna Fletcher (Ian West/PA)

“I have had to break it to them, we are not actually getting the castle, that’s not part of the deal.”

She added that her children “couldn’t wait” to talk to her about the programme when she returned home.

Fletcher, 35, said thinking of her family helped get her through the programme’s gruelling challenges.

“If I think of them seeing me with a snake on my head of anything like that, it really did actually help me in those trials to think the boys are going to be watching and I didn’t want them to see me being scared or worried about it,” she said.

“Before I went in actually I showed Buzz, the oldest, the best bits from last year and it starts off really well and everyone’s really happy and everyone’s laughing and then the trials start and there’s just screaming from everyone.

“Buzz suddenly got really scared and was like ‘I don’t want you to do it, I don’t want you to be scared’.

“So I made him a promise that I would get in there and that he would see me laughing and he would see me having a good time and that really pushed me through the whole way.”

British Heart Foundations Heart Hero Awards 2019 – London
British Heart Foundations Heart Hero Awards 2019 – London Vernon Kay (Ian West/PA)

Fletcher saw off competition from TV presenter Vernon Kay and radio DJ Jordan North in the final of the competition.

Kay told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he had lost a lot of weight while he was taking part.

“I’m not going to lie, there are a few ripples that weren’t there before around the abdomen area,” he said.

He added that the “scale of the show is unbelievable” and he praised the production team.

“It was outrageously impressive,” he said.

Benidorm Is 10 Photocall – London
Benidorm Is 10 Photocall – London Shane Richie (Matt Crossick/PA)

Actor and comedian Shane Richie said appearing on the programme was an “incredible experience”.

“It is even hard now, because I’ve only been back a couple of days, to put into words,” he told ITV’s This Morning.

“It was like a sleepover for three weeks with 11 strangers.”

The I’m A Celebrity final was watched by an average audience of 9.7 million, according to ITV’s overnight viewing figures.

The series was filmed at Gwrych Castle near Abergele in North Wales, rather than its usual location in Australia because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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