Gemma Collins has alleged she was physically attacked moments before she flew out to be on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
The 43-year-old reality TV personality left the programme after three days and was subject to much ridicule following her exit, with memes and comments relating to her weight.
In an interview for the Everything I Know About Me podcast, the former TOWIE star revealed she regrets not pressing charges at the time.
“I was beaten up the night before I went into the jungle. I was knocked out, I was attacked and I was robbed,” Collins said of the incident which occurred in 2014. “The police were at my house at 5 in the morning and the Addison Lee was outside at 6 o’clock.”
Speaking about her decision not to involve the police, Collins referred to her plummeting mental health following the backlash to her appearance on the show.
“I was in a lot of pain. I should have pressed charges but young, stupid, and obviously then famous, I didn’t want to bring too much attention to it... I remember that being really stressful.”
On the plane to the jungle, Collins recalls sharing her ordeal with presenter Laura Whitmore who was “so kind” and advised her to “just do your best”.
The star says she was offered £75,000 for her apperance but I’m A Celeb bosses attempted to stop her taking part following the incident. Collins insisted she would be fine out of fear of wasting the opportunity or letting anyone down.
“I went into the jungle and I probably played it down a bit if I’m being honest... my body was in bits. I was bruised.
“Then all the embarrassment of what the TV programmes were saying, ‘Gemma Collins left the jungle because she was hungry’ and it just wasn’t my fault.”
The aftermath of the show led the usually upbeat star to a dark place as she said, “I remember just laying in my flat 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’m gutted about it, I feel like I was robbed of my moment and also made to feel like the worst person on earth.
“That’s in the past but it has affected me for sure.”
She said it took her a couple of months to get “strong again” as she hid from the world.
“I hid for a little while, which again I shouldn’t have been hiding, I had nothing to hide about. That was a real breaking point for me. ‘Gemma Collins left the jungle because she was hungry’, no I f**king wasn’t and I’ve had to live up to it like ‘Yeah, I left the jungle because I wanted a diet coke’, but no it was very serious.”
But Collins is eager to move on.
“It’s a shame what happened but we can’t always look back we’ve got to look forward but it made me such a stronger person.”
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
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