I’m A Celebrity... star Grace Dent sparked concerns among viewers last night with some suggesting she did not look well, just hours before her exit from the jungle.
The restaurant critic has now left the show on medical grounds just one week into filming.
A spokesperson for the ITV programme said: "She has been a great campmate and will be missed by her fellow celebrities and viewers alike."
Before facing the Touchdown of Terror trial, Dent said she was struggling in the jungle. The broadcaster was tasked with winning food for her camp by retrieving footballs from a box filled with bugs while also having her head encased in a large helmet which was gradually filled with insects.
After the trial, she was left in distress as she feared a cockroach had entered her ear.
“There’s one in my ear! There’s one in my ear! That’s not nice, I can hear it,” she shouted. The bug was later flushed her from ear by a medic and removed.
Dent told campmate Josie Gibson last week that she “had enough”. Adding: “I’ve completely had enough. I just want to go home."
"I haven’t got a lot left in me at the moment. I’m just keeping on a face for everybody,” she said to Gibson in the Bush Telegraph.
Dent had been due to face the next trial, named Down The Tubes, with Gibson, but after receiving the news about the trial, she looked visibly shaken and remained silent. The star, who has also noticeably lost weight in the week since the show started, was then consoled by her campmates.
Star’s last moments in jungle as she’s comforted by campmates— (ITV)
But given Dent’s exit, viewers have expressed their relief on social media after growing concerns about the way that she looked and her health.
One fan said they were “glad she left” and added: “I don’t watch that thing in the jungle but I did see the photos of #GraceDent she did not look well. I am glad she left. Surely we can make better TV than this rubbish.”
Another viewer said: “Really not surprised Grace Dent has left the jungle she really did not look okay. she wasn’t the same bubbly person she is on MasterChef #ImACeleb.”
A third commented: “She was looking more and more exhausted and anxious, and being chosen for a trial was probably the last straw. I hope she gets plenty of r ‘n’ r #ImACeleb.”
“She looked ill from day one,” a viewer said.
“I noticed the change in her on the last Masterchef I watched, she looks so ill,” commented one more user.
Before entering the jungle, Dent spoke about her diet in an interview, admitting that she is very “careful about what I eat because I put on weight really easily.”
Dent pictured with Nigel Farage on I’m A Celeb— (ITV)
The food writer opened up about how much she eats as well as how she monitors her daily intake.
“I do have to monitor every day how much food I have to eat for work, how many restaurants I have to go to, just trying to keep a balanced diet. I don’t think it’s easy in this day and age,” she said.
“I comfort eat every day, but not to excess. If I have that toast and that piece of chocolate, then I would eat lighter in other ways.”
Ahead of her I’m A Celebrity stint, Grace revealed she agreed to being on the show after facing a “really difficult time over the last four or five year.”
She told ITV: “My dad had dementia, I cared for him and I lost him. Mum had cancer and I lost her. I think that this has made me very strong and resilient.
“This is going to be a big challenge and now I am older, life is for living and it’s one of the reasons why I said yes,” she said.
Dent will now be travelling back to London from Brisbane Airport. A source close to Dent confirmed to The Mirror: "She is heading back to London today. She is tired and she just wants to get home."
This year’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! cast members, include controversial politician Nigel Farage, First Dates star Fred Sirieix and Britney Spears’s sister Jamie Lynn.
The show airs Sunday to Friday at 9pm and Saturday at 9.30pm on ITV.
