Ant McPartlin has spoken about his “confrontation” with Jimmy Bullard after the chaotic I’m A Celebrity... South Africa live final last week.
The presenter, 50, was seen caught in what looked like a strained exchange with former footballer Bullard after the show in the west London car park of the TV studios.
McPartlin appeared to laugh off the matter as Bullard attempted to get his attention, before a security guard seemed to step in.
Earlier in the evening, the Geordie host had refuted Bullard’s claims that show winner Adam Thomas had been “abusive, aggressive, and intimidating,” during an argument they had in the jungle.
McPartlin has now addressed the photos of his encounter with Bullard in the latest episode of his Hanging Out podcast with co-host Declan Donnelly on their YouTube channel Belta Box.
Discussing their exit after the final, Donnelly said: “I saw David Haye on the way out, he said, ‘What about that then? Hope you get some good ratings for that one.’”
McPartlin replied: “He doesn't care, that's David. That's what he does, he's a boxer, that's his stock in trade, you know.”
He then addressed his interaction with Bullard outside the studios, saying: “There's two people in the car park, David Haye and Jimmy Bullard and I thought, ‘Oh God, how's your luck?’
“I went over to David Haye, and he was like, ‘How brilliant was that? Wasn't that great?’
“And I was like, ‘Well, it was certainly talk about TV.’ I wouldn't call it great, but anyway, we had a laugh and we were cool.”
He added: “And then I walked off and seen Jimmy Bullard, and I just shook his hand and I was like, ‘Look after yourself’, and he was like, ‘Yeah, cheers’.
“So there was no confrontation. He wasn't shouting at me, I wasn't shouting at him.”
During the live final, Bullard asked McPartlin to weigh in on whether Thomas behaved aggressively during their argument on the show.
McPartlin disagreed that it was aggressive, stating: “No it wasn’t, I was there.”
Thomas responded by saying he took “full responsibility” for his actions and has “nothing but love for Jimmy”, but Haye interrupted the exchange to say: “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
He then claimed a lot of footage surrounding Thomas’ behaviour was cut, stating: “We all had banter back and forth, and a lot of it was cut out from their side.”
Haye and Bullard asked their fellow campmates to agree that Thomas had been “abusive” in the argument.
Sinitta and Gemma Collins defended the actor but eventually walked off set, with Collins branding Haye “disgusting”.
Sinitta later appeared on Good Morning Britain to accuse Haye and Bullard of being “goading bullies” and said they missed their chance to calmly communicate their side of the story during the final.
Thomas has since tearfully doubled down on his claims that Haye is a “bully”.
The boxer, who has denied the bullying claims, is said to be planning to sue ITV for millions over “irreparable” damage to his brand.
