In a sizzling twist straight from the jungle drama, *I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!* hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly finally tackled those long-simmering whispers of a bitter rivalry with contestant Kelly Brook. The explosive address happened on the aftershow *Unpacked*, where the dynamic duo turned the spotlight on the alleged bad blood—and Ant didn’t hold back!
Over the weekend, as Ant and Dec dissected the latest antics from the main show with co-hosts Joel Dommett and Kemi Rodgers, the conversation veered into cheeky territory. It all kicked off when Ant critiqued the camp’s culinary disasters, quipping, “What they’ve got given hasn’t been awful, has it? Even octopus, if you cook it right, it’s nice. They just cooked it badly.”
Rodgers, ever the sharp observer, pointed out that the camp’s head chefs have been Martin Kemp and none other than Kelly Brook herself. Cue Dec bursting into laughter and teasing his partner: “What’s your problem with Kelly Brook?” Ant, quick as a flash, pointed right back at Dec and fired off, “Don’t you start! I don’t have a problem with Kelly Brook, thank you.” The playful banter had fans buzzing—could this be the end of a 16-year grudge?
For those not in the loop, the so-called feud traces back to 2009, when the glamorous model and radio DJ Kelly Brook parachuted into the *Britain’s Got Talent* judging panel… only to be unceremoniously dropped after just one week. Officially, it was chalked up to “complications” from adding a fourth judge. But behind the scenes? Pure fireworks.
In their 2010 memoir *Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story*, Dec spilled the tea on the awkward first encounter. “Kelly looked nervous, so I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax,” he recalled. “She nodded, then looked at me and said, ‘And what do you do on the show?'” Dec admitted he was stunned, comparing it to the time the Queen asked him the same question at ITV’s 50th anniversary bash. “I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac,” he wrote, “but…”
The duo wasn’t thrilled about Brook’s hiring from the get-go. “We had two questions: ‘Why is there a fourth judge?’ and ‘Why is it Kelly Brook?'” Dec revealed. No one could give them a straight answer, and it boiled down to Simon Cowell’s solo decision. As hosts, Ant and Dec felt blindsided, explaining, “We have to justify that kind of thing to the audience, and no one could give us a good reason why Kelly was on board. We didn’t agree.”
From Kelly’s perspective, the vibes were icy. She later claimed Ant and Dec “clearly didn’t want” her there, despite being “pleasant” face-to-face. “Their egos are such that they were saying to themselves: ‘How dare she think she can come on to our show?'” she said. Post-firing, Kelly felt blacklisted: “There was nothing I could do in this country… the people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec and that was it.”
Adding fuel to the fire, former *BGT* judge Piers Morgan jumped in on Instagram right after Kelly’s dramatic parachute entrance into the *I’m a Celebrity* jungle on November 16. “As Kelly Brook goes into the *I’m a Celebrity* jungle, a throwback to when she very briefly appeared as a judge on *Britain’s Got Talent*… for just two disastrous days!” he posted. “Be interesting to see how she interacts with Ant and Dec given she still blames them for being fired so fast and ruthlessly… which isn’t far from the truth.”
Morgan dished that the hosts were furious over not being consulted on her hiring—and even more so when she innocently asked about their roles. With Kelly now one of the 10 campmates battling it out in the 2025 series, all eyes are on whether this jungle stint will bury the hatchet for good.
Ant’s firm shutdown on *Unpacked* suggests the feud might be more myth than reality. But in the world of showbiz, where egos clash and memories linger, who knows what surprises the jungle holds next? Stay tuned— this backstage blow-up is far from over!