When she first appeared on I’m A Celebrity in 2006, Myleene Klass was runner-up, but left with a legion of new fans thanks to her itsy bitsy white bikini and love of a shower.
And after beating other old I’m A Celebrity hands to win the series in South Africa and become the first I’m a Celebrity Legend, Myleene, 45, has told how she had been in two minds over whether to take part.
She says: “They say don’t go back to an ex and don’t go back to a reheated dinner. I thought to myself, ‘Oh no, what if it’s not as good?’.”
But she needn’t have worried. She says: “I’ve gone back into the bush and it’s been even bigger, more majestic.
“And it’s not been against any campmates – it’s been against the best of the best. It’s just been mind-blowing.
“Everything was magical, very tough – challenging both mentally and physically – and something that I’ve loved throwing myself into.”
Her daughters Ava, 15, and Hero, 12, had talked her into taking part. She says: “Both of them were just begging me to do it. I said to them, ‘I’ll be as strong as I can be’.
“I wanted to show them, and other little girls, keep walking through the fire.”
She left the girls and her three-year-old son Apollo with fiance Simon Motson and went to South Africa. And beating Jordan Banjo to take the title proved she made the right decision.
She says: “I feel so happy. I said if I got a crown on my head it would be the icing on the cake. It’s better than that.” Myleene was 28 and building a career as a solo artist after her success with pop band Hear’Say when she did her first I’m A Celebrity.
She says: “The first time round I wasn’t a mum so there was no jeopardy if I ran around the jungle for a few weeks in a white bikini.
“I had the time of my life and took on a few challenges and then I came out and everyone knew me for having a shower. There are worse things to be known for having. I had a ball the first time. This time round, I’m a mum and that changes everything.
“You don’t want to let your children down, you don’t want to say something that will embarrass them. You don’t want to bottle out of a trial.” And no one can accuse her of doing that. She triumphed in an incredible final eating trial, All You Can Stomach, putting away fermented eggs, pig snouts, 60 mouse tails and 40 spoons of fermented tofu to win. She admitted feeling “a bit green” afterwards.
She, Jordan, 30, and third-placed Fatima Whitbread, 62, also endured the Critter Countdown, during which snakes were wrapped around Myleene’s head. She says: “I’ve really been tested and had to really hold my nerve. I’m a Celebrity is phenomenal – it tests you on every single level.
“You don’t have your friends and family around you. You have to make your own choices on everything.
“You’re so far from home, I missed my children so much. But they made me a necklace and every trial I just held on to it.”
She credits her first stint in I’m A Celebrity with giving her a career boost – and a daughter.
Myleene has said she made up for being sex-starved in the Aussie jungle with then-boyfriend Graham Quinn when she got out, which was when Ava was conceived.
Myleene says: “The jungle back in Australia gave me my family, gave me my work, gave me my career. I wanted to go to the bush to say goodbye, to say thank you for what the jungle has given me.”
And once again, she leaves with great memories and new friends.
Jordan says: “Myleene is one tough cookie - and beautiful inside and out.”
