Somehow, someway, Channel 10 has convinced a whopping 150 famous faces to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! since the reality show first launched in 2015. This includes countless actors, musicians, TV personalities, models, influencers, politicians, sporting heroes and, of course, a whole bunch of reality stars.
While each season features between 12 and 15 celebs tackling the outrageous challenges, there are also plenty of stars who have politely turned down the opportunity to chow down on bull penis and boar testicles.
So, before the 2026 cast is officially unveiled, let’s dive into which celebs have been asked to join the show but said yeah, nah.
Kyle Sandilands
As one of Australia’s most recognisable media personalities, it’s no surprise that Channel 10 asked Kyle Sandilands to join I’m A Celebrity. The radio host revealed on Samantha Armytage’s Something To Talk About podcast in 2021 that he had turned down an offer of more than a million dollars to head into the jungle.
“They offered me $1.4 million to go over to the jungle and I said no, and then they gave Warnie $2 million and I was like ‘oh well, fuck you forever’,” he recalled. “They offered me a million for three weeks’ work. But there’s no way I’m going to do that. I’d rather not do it.
“Like, ‘Do you want to go and sit in the jungle for three weeks with Casey Donovan and eat worms?’ No! I do not want to do this thing.”
Kyle clearly doesn’t need the money after he and his radio co-host Jackie “O” Henderson signed a massive 10-year deal worth a reported $200 million in 2023, but he sure would be entertaining on the show.
Martha Kalifatidis
Another person I would LOVE to see on I’m A Celebrity but has declined the opportunity time and time again is MAFS star Martha Kalifatidis. An insider told Daily Mail in 2024 that producers have been trying to recruit the reality TV bride-turned-influencer for years and offered her $80,000.
“Producers were so desperate [to get her] they were willing to negotiate flexible terms about how long she needed to stay on the show, and advantages during the challenges,” they said. “She’s always been at the top of their wish list, but she’s cautious about how it might affect her image.”
Martha previously spoke about turning down the show in 2020 when her manager warned her against joining the reality show.
“My manager told me, ‘They’re just going to pick on you. You’ll be the ‘beauty girl’ under a magnifying glass,” she said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. “I was [also] asked to do Big Brother… just the regular version.”
Kristy Beames
Speaking of iconic reality TV stars, The Block 2023 ‘villain’ Kristy Beames revealed last year that she had gone through three rounds of interviews to appear on I’m A Celebrity before ultimately deciding it wasn’t for her.
“I’d never watched the show, so I went on Skye Wheatley’s page and saw the shit that she had posted and what she had to do and I was having hives just being like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t do this’,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
“I was freaking out, having full nightmares, and everyone in my family was like, ‘You can’t do this, it’s just so not something that you would do’. I was so petrified. And so right at the very end of the process, it was just like, yeah, this isn’t the right fit.”
Fingers crossed that Kristy and her husband Brett appear on an all-star season of The Block sometime soon because we need more of their no-BS energy on reality TV.
Dami Im
Aussie singer Dami Im, who won The X Factor in 2013, represented Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 and won The Masked Singer in 2023, recently revealed that she’s been contacted a bunch of times to appear on I’m A Celebrity and has always given producers the same answer.
“I get asked, like, every year, and no, that’s one show I will not be doing,” she said on the Confessions of a Reality Star podcast. “I just, I can’t. I will probably be the person that’s just crying the whole time.
“Not eating and then having to talk to people 24/7 with cameras on me, like, I can’t think of anything worse. That’s just hell for me.”
Look, you can’t argue with that.
Brooke Blurton
Former Bachelorette Brooke Blurton has also admitted to turning down I’m A Celebrity many times over the years because of the gross AF food situation, which she says would trigger a massive fear of hers.
“I have an extreme phobia of vomiting, where it basically dehabilitates my body. Like, I have panic disorder because of it, and if I had to do an eating challenge, I just don’t think it would be enjoyable for any audience to see me in that much of a traumatic state,” she said on the Confessions of a Reality Star podcast last year.
“That’s probably one thing that has deferred me from doing it, because of the eating challenges and also not being able to eat the food that nourishes my body. I’ve already starved half my childhood, I’m not doing it again!”
Don’t be surprised, however, if Brooke pops up in the jungle one day after she’s started her own charity supporting young people.
“One day I will have my own youth organisation and one day I probably would do I’m A Celebrity because that money would go straight into that foundation,” she teased. “It’s all going to happen because I’m very determined in doing it.”
So, will Brooke be joining the cast this year? Peep the full rumoured list of I’m A Celebrity 2026 participants here, including a MAFS bride, an international supermodel and a ‘90s pop star.
The post I’m A Celebrity, I’m Not Doing That: 5 Stars Who Have Turned Down The Reality Show appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
