When Fatima Whitbread joined up for I’m A Celebrity South Africa, she believed she understood what she was getting into, but there were some shocks.
One of the big celebrities returning for the special South Africa-set season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is the Olympic champion, 62.
Although she told Metro.co.uk and other media that she was “immediately yes” to participating, she didn’t escape the situation unharmed.
Without giving too much away before the series airs at the end of April, the singer spoke to reporters alongside fellow campmate Janice Dickinson about flying out to the South African jungle and how things went.
Fatima actually did lose a bodily part, although only briefly, as Janice claimed she was frightened birds would rip out her eyes as she slept and had her sleeping blanket zipped well up over her head.
Fatima ended up being the camp cook, and Janice praised the “great diet” that they all managed to stick to thanks to Fatima’s abilities.
‘Fatima was our chief chef and bottle washer. She was amazing every day, I don’t know how she did it, standing over a fire and tending to the fire. I kept telling Fatima, “You better watch out for your eyebrows and your eyelashes!”‘
To which Fatima jumped in – ‘Yeah, I lost them all.’
It appears Fatima may have avoided telling Janice to dodge the ‘I told you so,’ as her campmate’s jaw dropped as she asked: ‘Really?!’
‘Yes! There was intense heat there. It was so awful, and in the camp at night time it can get really cold,’ she explained.
‘So we’re all standing over the fire and for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and standing over a furnace like that – it dries your skin up, it shears your eyebrows!’
However, Janice praised Fatima for caring for everyone in the bush so well, so the sports star losing her eyebrows wasn’t for nothing.
‘Fatima was cooking for us all day long, I couldn’t have made it without Fatima … she was fantastic, she’s a champion, a champion of a woman and a champion campmate,’ she declared.
Shaun Ryder, Carol Vorderman, and Helen Flanagan are among the celebrities who have joined Janice and Fatima on the ITV programme in an effort to increase their chances of winning.
The primary cast includes Paul Burrell, Phil Tufnell, Amir Khan, and Jordan Banjo, while ITV has indicated more actors will make unexpected appearances during the season.
I’m A Celebrity…South Africa starts Monday at 9pm and airs all week on ITV1 and ITVX
