Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page has said she hopes taking part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here will help her reconnect with who she was before becoming a mother.
The actress, 49, will appear in the upcoming new series of the ITV reality show alongside a star-studded cast including former footballer Wayne Rooney, TV personality Chloe Burrows and soap star Claire Sweeney.
Page, who has four children with husband actor James Thornton, said she jumped at the chance to appear on the show and hopes it will give her some time to just be herself rather than a mother.
She said: “This is a once in a lifetime experience. I’m very much an impulsive person and I just make a gut decision, so I said ‘yes’ straight away.
“For the first couple of days in Australia, I’m sure I am going to be going, ‘Nobody is saying ‘mummy I’m hungry’. I won’t have four kids to get ready for the school run.
“But after a while, I’m sure I will be like, ‘I’ve got peace and time for my thoughts’. I can be me; I can be Jo and not just mummy all the time. I think that will be nice.
“I will never get to do anything like this again. I am telling myself, ‘Come on Jo, let’s take yourself off to Australia and give yourself an experience’. It’s exciting and it’s going to be life changing.”
She also hopes to be the first Welsh Queen of the Jungle.
She said: “I think that would be a pretty good title to take home! But I’m just as excited to see if I can last the distance. I’m not going to crumble. I’m going to see this to the end and I’m going to be strong. I am going to get the most out of this.”
Known for playing Stacey Shipman in the hit BBC comedy series, she believes her co-stars will be “shocked” when they find out that she is in the jungle.
She said: “I also know they will find it funny. They know exactly what I am like and they will laugh.”
Meanwhile, Rooney will follow in his wife Coleen’s footsteps after she finished runner-up on the 2024 series.
He said “always wanted to do” I’m A Celebrity and joked that because of his short-lived football managerial career, he has more time on his hands.
“I hope people will see me for who I am,” he said. “I like to have fun and I like to think I am actually a fun guy to be around.
“I do like to mess around a bit and I do talk a lot. People will have their own opinions, but I hope they will see me as a genuine person.
“Coleen did it a couple of years ago and then this year it came about because of the way it fell – me not being great as a manager!
“And obviously not working full time as a player has given me time where I could do it, so I thought, why not?”
Rooney will be joined by Paralympian and TV presenter Ade Adepitan who will be the first contestant in a wheelchair to appear on the show – something he said his eight-year-old self would not believe.
“Words like ‘honour’ and ‘privilege’ are ones I feel, but I don’t think they sum it up enough,” he said.
“For me, this is a moment in time. Even if I go out in the first week, I will always be remembered as the person in a wheelchair. I am slightly overwhelmed.
“It’s never been done before, and it never crossed my mind I would be the first. It’s the biggest show on TV and this is a huge opportunity.
“How often do you get to spend three weeks in the jungle doing this crazy stuff?”
The cast line-up includes supermodel Leomie Anderson, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, YouTuber and content creator Sharky, TV presenter AJ Odudu, comedian Jack Skipper and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! starts on Monday November 16 at 9pm on Virgin Media Play and Virgin Media One.