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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Connie Rusk

Harry Redknapp slams I'm A Celeb's 'tired and disappointing' 5* Palazzo Versace Hotel

It's renowned as a plush oasis that celebs can escape to after a couple of weeks of hell, but Harry Redknapp has a very different memory of I'm A Celebrity 's famous 5* Palazzo Versace Hotel.

After other stars gushed about the luxurious Palazzo - which can cost up to £13,450 for a week's stay - Harry was looking forward to being pampered after struggling to sleep on the jungle floor.

Yet he admits he was disappointed when he finally was able to walk through those doors back in 2018 after being crowned King Of The Jungle.

A few weeks prior, having not watched a single episode, the former West Ham manager, 75, happily arrived in camp thinking the diet of rice and beans was "just for the cameras" and there would be a bacon sandwich van tucked away behind camp for the stars.

In his new autobiography, When Harry Met Sandra, the jungle champ details his experience on the show and all the juicy secrets - from a celebrity being shocked they were evicted to finding the Palazzo Versace Gold Coast five star hotel "tired and very disappointing".

When the first eviction swung around, Harry recalls how Noel Edmonds, who bagged a rumoured £600,000 to be on the show, whispered confidently in his ear: "“This doesn’t concern me or you. We won’t be going anywhere."

As luck would have it, Noel was the first one out.

Harry Redknapp has spilled behind-the-scenes secrets from his stint on I'm A Celebrity in 2018 (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Harry says: "Noel took his fate on the chin, but I could see he was disappointed. He also didn’t think he was going home a few minutes earlier, so he was probably shocked too."

As the days wore on, the former West Ham says he was on full-time dunny duty having lost his sense of smell in a fatal crash back in Rome in 1990.

"The food was diabolical. There were a few days when I just couldn’t eat. I couldn’t face it... Camp was so quiet when others were out doing tasks and would use that time to go and crash out on a hammock and have a kip for an hour or so.

Harry called the five-star Palazzo Versace hotel "very disappointing" (Getty Images)

"But they were very long days – I would be up at 5am and we were going to bed so late at night."

After going head-to-head in the final against Emily Atack, Harry was crowned the winner and was reunited with Sandra as fireworks went off on the bridge.

He recalls: "Before long, we were making our way back to the Palazzo Versace. It wasn’t as glamorous and high end as I thought. I I thought it was going to be five-star pure luxury, that is certainly what I had been led to believe as my fellow campmates were raving about it and said how they couldn’t wait to stay there.

The ex football manager said Noel was stunned to be evicted first (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

"But the hotel looked quite tired and the corridors had plates of half-eaten food outside some rooms. It was very disappointing."

But Harry said he felt relieved just to be able to have shower, a proper meal and decent sleep.

The next day the media train began, with the former football manager recalling being "thrown out of the hotel" without a proper kip to do all of his press interviews.

Harry went on to win the show - having never watched a single episode (James Gourley/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
When Harry Met Sandra is out now (Mirror Books)

Despite the close friendships formed on the series, Harry says contact on the campmates' I'm A Celebrity WhatsApp group has "faded out".

He says: "We had a WhatsApp group with everyone on it, but it is fading out a bit now. I don’t go on it very often, but then I am not great with all these groups and whatnot.

"It was a great experience", says Harry.

When Harry Met Sandra is out on Thursday (September 29), £20, published by Mirror Books

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