I’m A Celebrity’s Ant McPartlin addresses Kelly Brook feud with honest eight-word verdict

Ant McPartlin addressed his feud with Kelly Brook (Image: ITV)

Ant McPartlin has finally addressed his feud with I’m A Celebrity campmate Kelly Brook. The model, 46, has reportedly had tense relationships with Ant and his presenting partner Declan Donnelly since she accused them of getting her fired as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. After last night’s show, Ant and Dec appeared on I’m A Celebrity: Unpacked alongside hosts Joel Dommett and Kemi Rogers. Discussing the programme, Ant pointed out that this year’s campmates have been particularly bad at cooking.

He said: “What they’ve got given hasn’t been awful, has it? Even octopus, if you cook it right, it’s nice. They just cooked it badly. Every dinner they’ve made I’ve thought, ‘That looks rancid.'” Kemi, 30, suggested that Ant’s remarks were aimed at Kelly and Martin Kemp as they are currently in charge of cooking in camp. Turning to his partner, Dec asked: “What’s your problem with Kelly Brook?” A frustrated Ant snapped back: “Don’t you start! I don’t have a problem with Kelly Brook, thank you.”

Their feud dates back to 2009, when the radio presenter was brought on as the first ever fourth judge alongside Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan.

However, she was dropped after just six episodes because the format was deemed “too complicated”. Despite this, Kelly insisted that Ant and Dec were the real driving force behind her departure.

In their 2009 memoir, Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story, Dec was honest about their feud, admitting he didn’t understand why Kelly had been hired in the first place.

He wrote: “Kelly looked nervous, so I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax… She nodded, then looked at me and said, ‘And what do you do on the show?’ I looked at Simon, who was sitting next to me. He turned to Kelly and said, “Kelly, you have seen the show, haven’t you?” To which she replied, ‘Yeah… well, bits.’

“I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac, but the last person who said, ‘And what do you do?’ was the Queen when I met her at the party for ITV’s fiftieth anniversary.”

Kelly blamed Ant and Dec for getting her fired from Britain’s Got Talent (Image: ITV)

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Kelly later hit back, claiming that no one wanted to hire her after her departure from Britain’s Got Talent and that Ant and Dec “clearly” didn’t want her to be a part of the show.

She said: “There was nothing I could do in this country after Britain’s Got Talent. The people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec and that was it. I would love to have stayed on the show…

“I really felt it was working out. Ant and Dec had never been anything but pleasant to my face but, clearly, they didn’t want me on the show.

“Their egos are such that they were saying to themselves, ‘How dare she think she can come on to our show?’, and since then they’ve been very vocal about their displeasure at me being there.”

Kelly appeared on Britain’s Got Talent for just six episodes in 2009 (Image: ITV)

Later in the book, the Geordie duo admitted they were “annoyed” that they hadn’t been informed Kelly would be joining the show

Dec penned: “We had two questions: ‘Why is there a fourth judge?’ and ‘Why is it Kelly Brook?’ None of them could answer us… Obviously, as hosts of the show, we have to justify that kind of thing to the audience, and no one could give us a good reason why Kelly was on board.”

He added: “The simple answer was that Simon, without talking to anyone, had decided it was a good idea. We didn’t agree.”

Kelly went on to take a jab at the pair for including her in their book, writing: “As for Ant and Dec, good luck to them. They are rich and they are happy, but they won’t be in my autobiography, even if I am in theirs!”