Boy George has spoken out on 'bullying' claims for the first time since leaving I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. The 80s music icon was among the line-up for this year's edition of the ITV reality show alongside the likes of Mike Tindall, Sue Cleaver, Matt Hancock and eventual winner Jill Scott.
During the last week of the 2022 run, George was announced by hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly as the fourth campmate to leave the Australian jungle. When asked by Ant and Dec during his exit interview why he went in, the Culture Club star said: "Part insanity and just the experience. For me it is not something I would choose to do. It was much tougher than I thought. It makes you really appreciate what you have in life."
Reflecting on his campmate and former health secretary Matt, who George admitted to 'hating on' while in the jungle, the singer, 62, said: "Having Matt in here was really challenging for a lot of reasons…" But he did turn things around by pausing to say: "By the way, he’s just a person. In here he’s just a person, he mucked in, he was really really doing a lot to help everyone, so I can’t judge him on that."
During his time as a campmate, George and some of his fellow celebs were criticised for their treatment of Matt, who entered the reality show as a latecomer alongside comedian Seann Walsh and made it to the final three alongside Lioness Jill and Hollyoaks star Owen Warner.
But in his first big interview since taking part in I'm A Celeb, George has denied any kind of mistreatment of the MP. Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, the Karma Chameleon hitmaker said: "The thing with Matt was that I wasn't prepared for it. I don't like surprises, so for me, I was like, 'Okay', and I was asked a question about it and it actually brought back a lot of quite painful stuff for me.
"It's not like me to cry, I am usually very stoic, usually I will cry in private as it's good to cry but at that moment. What I didn't want was people watching who had been through some painful things, was for them to think we were all laughing at them."
He also said he was "quite surprised" he had read in the news following his eviction from the show that he had "bullied" Matt. "I knew for a fact he would never come out and say I'd bullied him because that was the opposite of what I did," he explained. "That was the opposite of what I did. Bullying would be being dishonest and saying things behind his back to everyone else.
"There was a lot of that in the background, people saying things about Matt and then being friendly to his face. I said what I had to say then I wanted to enjoy my time in the jungle."
George also divulged some more details from his time Down Under, and revealed to Lorraine that he tried to stage a protest in the jungle. Addressing his reported 'tantrum' over not being allowed to take a buggy ride back to camp following a trial, he claimed that when he saw the cameras 'weren't on', he didn't understand why he had to walk back up the hill to camp if it wasn't being filmed.
He also revealed: "Sue got a buggy because she had a bad leg and rightfully so. And I had no problem with other people being looked after... You're never going to object to someone having something naughty. I was trying to encourage these mutinies all the time...
"When we didn't get a question right and I was like, 'We've just lost a bit of chocolate, let's all go into the BT [Bush Telegraph], take our mics off and they'll give us the chocolate'. And nobody... none of them [would do it]."
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