Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@Everythingiknowaboutme/ITV
Topics: Celebrity, Im A Celebrity, Gemma Collins, Mental Health, Reality TV, ITV
Kya Buller
Topics: Celebrity, Im A Celebrity, Gemma Collins, Mental Health, Reality TV, ITV
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide and domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
Gemma Collins has opened up about the shocking domestic abuse she faced at the hands of an ex and how it affected her stint on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - as well as her pay.
The reality TV star and self-professed diva catapulted to fame after joining the cast of The Only Way Is Essex in 2011 and remained on the show until 2019.
Gemma went on to feature in a number of shows including Celebrity Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating and Dancing on Ice.
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But it was her appearance in I'm A Celeb in 2014 that made the most headlines, and not for the usual reasons of sass or iconic one-liners.
Gemma left the jungle after just 72 hours, with the ITV announcement citing that she had been 'struggling to adapt to jungle life'.
While a lot of details were left unknown, social media trolls and several tabloids shared claims that she left because she was 'hungry'.
This read to many as a cheap shot, as Gemma has publicly spoken out throughout the years about her fluctuating weight and body image and was visibly emotional in the jungle.
Today (16 May), Gemma has spoken out on the Everything I Know About Me podcast, and put an end to the vicious rumours.
Gemma has revealed that she was in an abusive relationship with her ex at the time, who robbed her shop and beat her up the night before she was due to fly to Australia, and also shared how much she was paid.
She also admitted that the backlash after she left the jungle left her feeling suicidal.
She said: "The jungle called, and yeah, I took the deal.
"That was a disaster because I was seeing an absolute wrong-un and I didn't listen to no one."
Gemma continued: "Basically, I'd opened a shop the day before I went into jungle, which, who would do that? No-one was saying to me ‘slow down, Gem, we need to prepare you, let us come and help you pack your cases’. I had no one, literally not one person around me.
"I was beaten up the night before I went into the jungle, I was knocked out, I was attacked, and I was robbed. The police were at my house at five o'clock in the morning and I think the Addison Lee was outside at six o'clock."
Further along in the podcast, Gemma opened up about why she really quit I'm A Celeb and the aftermath on her mental health.
She shared: "I probably played it down a bit to be honest, but they could see from the bruising and then they put me in the rough camp, so that was psychologically damaging as well, but nothing to do with them; I'm not holding that against them. It's not their fault either what happened to me, but I needed a bed. My body was in bits, I was bruised, I was in a lot of pain."
Gemma then broke down in tears, before adding: "Can you imagine getting the biggest TV show, getting paid £75,000 which was a hell of a lot of money then, and then getting beaten up, then getting robbed?
"That upset me, and then all of the embarrassment of what the TV programmes were saying: ‘Gemma Collins left the jungle, she was hungry’, and it wasn't my fault.
"I remember laying in my flat where I lived, and just thinking 'I just want to die. I haven't done anything wrong; I've left the jungle because of something that happened to me'.
"No one was even honest about what happened to me, so I had to walk around with this shame that I'd done something wrong. I mean, that I'm gutted about because I feel like I was robbed of my moment and then I was also made to feel like the worst person on Earth."
She added: "I actually remember being in my flat thinking, I think I'm gonna kill myself. I can't cope.
"That was a real breaking point for me."
Tyla has reached out to ITV for comment.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247, available 24/7, or via live chat, available 3pm-10pm, Monday to Friday.