I’M A Celebrity’s Jordan North has revealed he was never supposed to be on the show – and was brought it as a last-minute replacement when another star dropped out.
Speaking to pal Greg James on Radio 1 today the 30-year-old runner-up said: “I was last minute. I got a call to say: ‘Maybe next year not this year.’
“Then I got a call two weeks later saying: ‘Do you wanna do it? Someone’s dropped out.’
“Then I had two days to do everything: medical, photos, psychiatrists et cetera. Forty-eight hours. It very nearly never happened.”
He also explained that Dec Donnelly, 45, coached him through his horrifying Viper Vault trial, where he had to be shut in a box full of snakes.
Jordan says he even fled off the set, saying: “So I’m in this coffin full of snakes and I’m screaming: ‘Happy place Turf Moor.’
“I don’t know if you know but it took me an hour to get in. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for Dec. I went off set.”
He also explained he spent much of his time in the castle in a panic, joking that he feared he might not have a job when he emerged.
Jordan said: “Am I gonna have a career at the end of this? It was the best but the toughest three weeks of my life.
‘We were freezing, we were starving. I thought the hunger would get better but it got worse. You’re just waiting around.
“In the jungle you could sunbathe but you can’t in Wales. We were so bored.”
