I'm A Celebrity star Vincent Simone has admitted the jungle has changed him forever.
The former Strictly pro, 45, was a campmate on the 2013 series of the ITV hit, which returns to ITV on Sunday (November 17) at 9pm. And the Italian dancer has revealed that roughing it in the jungle has had a huge impact on his life as it's made him "more courageous" and feel "more like a man" around the house.
Vincent, who is working with Jackpotjoy, had no idea how he was going to survive in camp after signing up to the show. Before the jungle, it only took one look at a spider at home to make him question his stint.
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But now, he's braver than ever when a spider appears, because he's already had hundreds of cockroaches poured over him. Asked how the show has changed him as a person, he admitted: "I feel more like a man".
Vincent said: "Still now, I'm much more courageous. When there's spiders and my boys say ‘Oh, Daddy, there's a spider’ I feel more like a man. I feel like, okay, I get a tissue, grab the spider, put him outside. But before, maybe I would have just killed the spider. So, in a way, I feel like I've improved a lot. I don't freak out anymore, I'll just stay calm because I always think ‘Well, if I was in the jungle, this would have been fine.’"
He said: "Once I knew that I was going to join, I remember looking at a little spider in my house and thinking ‘oh, my gosh, how am I going to get over this?’. Like most people, we’re not really insect-friendly, especially spiders, in my own experience. It’s weird because it's all to do with the environment, when you are in the jungle, you accept it.
"I had to put a spider in my mouth, when on earth would you ever do that in your own home? But there's gonna be 12 million people watching you. You just get on with it, you know? You're safeguarded by professionals, so you just do it. It's a performance.
"I remember one of the challenges I had to do, they dropped cockroaches into a room. But before the challenges started, I was there with my beautiful friend Annabelle, we joined together and were there in this room not knowing what was going to happen.
"I remember we spotted one cockroach on the wall and she was screaming and we all freaked out because we saw one cockroach. But then when they start dropping hundreds of them, it's okay. When you see one, you focus on the cockroach. When you get loads of them, it's whatever, you just get on with your challenge."
He also advised this year's campmates, which include WAG Coleen Rooney, Corrie star Alan Halsall and Strictly star Oti Mabuse, to stay as active as possible around camp. He said: "Even being active physically, it's very important because it can be hard if you lay around too much, if you're sitting down too much.
"So just be active. They kept saying that to me as well, as a suggestion. Just keep moving and do some exercises, because you lose weight, you lose fat, and it's important you keep your muscles up to scratch."
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