INTERVIEWS
HELEN:‘ I want to make my kids proud’
As they return for the new spin-off series, Helen Flanagan and Carol Vorderman reflect on how different their lives are since they were last in the jungle
CREDITS: ITV, KNIGHT67PHOTO
It’s been over a decade sinceformer Corrie star Helen Flanagan entered the Australian jungle – famously failing to gain any meals after five Bushtucker Trials.
The self-confessed “scaredy-cat” became famed for screaming, “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here…now!”, as well as bringing fake tan into the jungle and admitting she’d never blow-dried her own hair.
But despite the setbacks, Helen – now a mum-of-three – is heading to South Africa to star in the ITV show’s new spin-off series. And she’s determined to complete her Bushtucker Trials this time around, vowing, “I want to make my children proud.”
HARSHER
Helen is set to join other legendary campmates, including Carol Vorderman, ex-cricketer Phil Tufnell and former royal butler Paul Burrell, when the show, I’m A Celebrity… South Africa hits our screens later this month. It’s billed as a tougher version, designed to push contestants to their limits, with bigger challenges in a harsher environment.
Helen, 32, says, “It’s going to be different [this time]. I was only 22 back then and I’m 32 now. I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve had three children and I’ve gone through three labours! I won’t not finish the trials, because my mindset will be very different this time.”
Reflecting back on her time in the jungle, Helen, who says she’s still “creeped out” by the theme tune, admits she wasn’t ready to swap her life as a glam soap star for creepy crawlies and camp beds.
She confesses, “When I went in the jungle, I didn’t prepare at all. I didn’t have a clue what I was letting myself in for and I cried when my phone got taken off me after I landed in Australia. I struggled from the word go.”
Laughing, she adds, “When I see Ant and Dec in South Africa, I’ll joke that I’m not going to do the trials! It will be nice to see them again, in a funny way.”
But despite her determination to take on the gruelling challenges, Helen – who has some fierce competition in Olympian Fatima Whitbread and boxing champ Amir Khan – admits she’ll have to dig deep.
BRAVE
“I’ll be scared, but I will have a go and I’ll be a lot better than I was last time,” she says. “I’m just going to be brave and get on with it. I want to go back on I’m A Celeb to be a better version of myself. I want to make myself proud.”
Last October, Helen reportedly split from her fiancé Scott Sinclair – with whom she shares Matilda, seven, Delilah, four, and Charlie, two – and then underwent a boob op, for more “pe
