Helen Flanagan was "horrified by everything" when she first appeared on I'm A Celebrity 10 years ago, reports The Mirror.
The former Coronation Street actress went on the ITV reality show aged 22 and struggled to deal with the surroundings, including her first-ever encounter with a rat, which took place in the jungle.
A decade later, the now 32-year-old, who recently separated from Bristol Rovers football Scott Sinclair, feels a lot stronger as she prepares to return to the setting that once "destroyed" her.
READ NEXT: Helen Flanagan raw with fans as she admits she 'doesn't know what's wrong with her' after breakdown
The first episode of I'm A Celebrity South Africa, which airs on Monday, April 24 at 9pm on ITV1, will return Helen to her worst nightmare, which reportedly threw her when she was last there, as she told The Mirror.
“I just got absolutely destroyed,” says Helen. “It was just ridiculous. I was just like, ‘Oh, I’ll be fine. I’ll chill in my bikini, make some friends, it will be good for me…’ I’d watched a few episodes but I didn’t watch it in detail. I was only just YouTubing things when I was on my plane, then I was thinking, ‘It won’t be that bad’.”
But, when producers took Helen’s phone off her, she was in tears before she even saw her first rat. “I was horrified,” gasps Helen. “I’ll never forget it. When I arrived at the camp there were rats everywhere.
"I’d never seen a rat. I was just absolutely thrown. I felt sick. I was so scared. I was just horrified by everything.” As Helen crumbled, viewers cruelly voted for her to do trial after trial. “I just got voted and voted and voted and I really struggled with everything,” she says.
A decade on, Helen has toughened herself up for going back to the jungle for the first I’m A Celebrity all-star edition.
“I thought about it for a good while,” confides Helen. “I did the jungle when I was 22. And now I’m 32. Obviously you change, you’re such a different person within 10 years. I really wanted to set myself the challenge of doing it. I’m A Celebrity is such an iconic show and it’s so flattering to be asked back.”
Filming in South Africa rather than Australia this time meant potentially spending a month away from her children, Matilda, seven, Delilah, four, and Charlie, two, but luckily Helen – who is separated from their dad, footballer Scott Sinclair – has great support from both sets of grandparents.
“That was very difficult,” says Helen, who filmed the show over the winter. “Matilda said, ‘Mummy, never go away again.’ It was very difficult and that’s why it probably took such a long time to decide. But I had a massive support network. I’m very close to Scott’s mum and she looked after my little boy for me and then my mum and my dad looked after my little girls and they went to school. I had a lot of help. I was very lucky.”
To sweeten the deal, Helen is planning to throw her children a jungle party when they watch the show with her at home. “Matilda is seven, nearly eight, so she’ll really enjoy it, she’ll think it’s hilarious,” says Helen. “Delilah is a bit softer so I don’t think she’ll like any bugs being put on me and Charlie won’t have a clue. I’ll have a little jungle party for them, I hope they enjoy it!”
The line-up was a closely guarded secret, so during her week in Covid quarantine, Helen tried to listen quietly from her villa to see if she could recognise any voices floating out of the other villas.
Her eavesdropping was unsuccessful but she was thrilled to find herself camping with kindred spirits including Carol Vorderman, Jordan Banjo and Paul Burrell. She even has plans to meet “empowering” Carol for a catch-up just three days after our Notebook interview.
“I’m obsessed with Carol Vorderman,” shares Helen. “I really bonded with her. She is my girl crush. She’s amazing. I feel like she’s really empowering for women. She really inspires me.” She’s kept in touch with Jordan, too, and has found out why Diana, Princess of Wales, rated Paul so highly.
“I got on really well with Paul Burrell, he’s a real sweetie,” says Helen. And Jordan Banjo. I went to his 30th birthday party. I made some lovely connections, which was really nice.”
Other familiar faces in this year’s star line-up include Shaun Ryder, Janice Dickinson, Phil Tufnell, Fatima Whitbread and Amir Khan. Helen reckons the new set is even tougher than the one Down Under. “It’s a lot bigger,” she says. “It’s got a really beautiful waterfall. I was hoping [the set] was going to be warm, but it was freezing. I was in bed with a million layers on.”
The waterfall in the I’m A Celebrity camp has always been central to the show and Helen carefully chose her bikinis to make sure she looked model perfect. However, she’s not sure it paid off as the shower was ice-cold and she feared water snakes would slither around her legs.
“It was actually vile, it was freezing,” says Helen. “I tried my best to do a nice shower scene but I don’t know how it’s going to look! It was so cold. The waterfall was really creepy. I was too much of a wimp to go deep down into the waterfall. It was a big one, I thought it was full of water snakes and stuff.”
The waterfall might have been “vile” but Helen made sure her bikinis gave her a little bit of luxe sparkle while she roughed it. “This sounds quite sad, but it’s not to me,” says Helen. “I spent ages thinking, ‘What bikinis can I wear?’ because I’m a very glam girl. I’m a very girlie girl so I wanted to feel nice.
I thought, ‘Oh God, I’m gonna feel so rubbish without even one eyelash on, so I’m going to pack some nice bikinis. Then it was nice to put some make-up on after the show.”
Helen also spent time preparing mentally and trying to rationalise her fears. “I’m not built for jungle life, but I wanted to go in and do a lot better than the first time. I wanted to be a good campmate and give the challenges a go.”
Altering her mindset helped, but Helen still hated every single trial. “All of them are horrendous,” she insists. “I have to work to get myself in a good mindset because they’re very, very difficult. I’ve worked quite a bit on focusing on things and you’re supposed to rationalise your fears as well. I was in a lift the other day and I felt really sick. I absolutely hate heights and I can’t stand bugs, can’t stand snakes, spiders, rats – the lot! I don’t like anything.”
So was she a better participant this time around? “I’m really laid back and I don’t want to be the leader,” confides Helen. “I have no interest in taking control of the situation, but I will help.”
There was one area she wasn’t going to get involved in though – the camp toilet. “The toilet was disgusting,” says Helen. “I wanted to be sick. I said, ‘I’ll do anything but not that’.”
I’m A Celebrity is full of challenges, and one of the hardest is being judged by viewers at home.
“You have to develop quite tough skin,” she says. “I’m an actress, so I don’t mind being on Coronation Street and people saying things about my character because it’s not me. But it’s weird when you do reality television and people have an opinion on you.”
But there are only three opinions she’s interested in these days – her children’s. “I’m a mum,” smiles Helen. “I have a bigger perspective on things now.”
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