Matt Hancock has asked his I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here campmate for “forgiveness”.
The Tory MP, who was health secretary during the pandemic, got emotional while being held to task for breaking his own lockdown rules during Friday’s episode of the ITV series (11 November).
When TV presenter Scarlette Douglas asked him why he broke the rules, Hancock told her he was sorry, stating: “I fell in love with somebody.”
He told his campmates that he was not fined for the act as he “didn’t break any laws”, adding: “Guidance is different. But the problem was it was my guidance.”
Hancock’s rule break leaked after he was caught having an affair with aide and now girlfriend Gina Coladangelo.
Newsreader and Loose Women star Charlene White stepped in to tell him that her aunt died during the pandemic, and she was unable to visit her while abiding by the rules he put in place, and then went on to break.
“We couldn’t go to the hospital to go and visit her. I had to sit by myself in the church at her funeral. We couldn’t hug each other because we were following guidance. And I get that you fell in love, I understand all of those things but ‘sorry’ for a lot of families like mine doesn’t really cut it,” White said.
Hancock replied: “That’s one of the reasons that I... regret it as much as I do.”
A tearful Hancock then approached White and, while putting a hand around her, said: “Do you know what it is actually, what I’m really looking for is a bit of forgiveness, that’s what I’m really looking for... We all make mistakes. I made a pretty big one.”
White hugged him, while Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver praised him for his honesty, and urged her campmates to stop grilling him over the matter.
“I think we’ve covered everything, we should stop. And life isn’t black and white and we are all fallible and we all [mess] up.”
Speaking of the moment in the Bush Telegraph, Hancock said: “Lots of the campmates asked questions that the public have got as well and it’s only respectful to just give completely straight and truthful answers.”
As expected, Hancock is repeatedly being voted to do all the gruesome Bushtucker Trials.
I’m a Celebrity continues nightly on ITV at 9pm.
