Kelly Brook is due to reunite with Ant and Dec when she stars on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! which starts Sunday November 16
British TV presenting duo Ant and Dec are returning to present the 25th series of I’m A Celeb
From left, the stars of Britain’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Kelly Brook, Piers Morgan and presenters Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly in 2009
It’s a grudge Kelly Brook once swore she would never forgive — a chapter from 2009 that, in her eyes, was shaped by Ant and Dec’s quiet disapproval and the abrupt end of her stint on Britain’s Got Talent. Now, 16 years later, she is set to come face to face with them once again on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! — and insiders say the jungle air may be colder than the Australian night.
‘Kelly might be all smiles, but underneath she is a tough, tough woman who doesn’t take well to being crossed,’ a friend of the star tells me
Kelly, who will join the new cast of the hit ITV series when it launches on Sunday, hasn’t seen Ant and Dec since she was dismissed as a BGT judge after just six days. At the time, she privately expressed her belief that the duo didn’t want her there — and looked down on her because of her glamour-model roots.
A close friend of Kelly tells me:
“Kelly might smile for the cameras, but she’s tough. She doesn’t forget when someone crosses her. This reunion is going to be fascinating television.”
ITV insiders are already referring to it as “the Kelly problem,” and producers are said to be considering whether Ant and Dec should make a joke of the past — though those who know Kelly doubt she’ll find it amusing.
This isn’t the first time the presenting duo have tried to address the tension. In their 2010 autobiography, Dec admitted he questioned why a fourth judge had been added at all, joining Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. When the format reverted back to three judges days later, Kelly insisted Ant and Dec had pushed for her removal following an awkward exchange backstage.
According to Dec, Kelly appeared nervous and he tried to reassure her — only for her to ask, “And what do you do on the show?” Dec looked to Simon Cowell, who responded bluntly: “Kelly, you have seen the show, haven’t you?” Her reply — she’d only seen “bits” — didn’t help.
Kelly later fired back, saying she was told by ITV bosses that Ant and Dec were displeased with her casting.
“I really felt things were going well,” she said. “Ant and Dec were pleasant to my face, but clearly they didn’t want me on the show. Their egos meant they were wondering how I dared think I could join ‘their’ show.”
It isn’t just Ant and Dec who may feel Kelly’s sharp tongue in the jungle. Her co-stars would be wise to tread carefully too. Kelly has a long history of speaking her mind — loudly — when something doesn’t sit right.
I know this firsthand. Back in 2015, while she was filming the NBC sitcom One Big Happy, produced by Ellen DeGeneres, Kelly invited me to the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles after feeling unfairly targeted by the British press. While James Corden was being praised at the time for hosting The Late Late Show, her sitcom — watched by far more viewers — was dismissed and mocked.
Kelly was furious. In emails and in person, she condemned what she saw as sexism in the UK media. As paparazzi snapped outside the hotel, Kelly reassured me she had tipped them off herself, not me. She wasn’t interested in playing things down — she wanted her voice heard.
Simon Cowell also appears prominently in her list of grievances. Kelly claims Cowell behaved “disrespectfully” during her BGT stint by arriving hours late to judging sessions while the others waited.
“He turned up when he wanted. It was totally disrespectful,” she said. Kelly also stressed that she didn’t beg for the job — Cowell himself had called her the night before to offer it.
Her bluntness extended to Hollywood royalty too. During our interview, Jude Law wandered over to greet her. Kelly loudly declared: “Eugh, he f*ing stinks.”** And when discussing her past romance with rugby player Danny Cipriani — a relationship that ended after alleged cheating — she unleashed a tirade of unfiltered opinions.
Even ITV may be bracing themselves for Kelly’s candid style. When I asked if she’d heard any recent gossip about herself, she replied with amusement — and a very colourful clarification — after being told there were rumours she might be a lesbian.
Friends say she has entered I’m A Celeb with one mission: to win. That determination, they insist, comes from her upbringing. Kelly grew up on a council estate in Rochester, Kent, where her father Ken, a scaffolder, worked hard to provide for the family.
Tears welled in her eyes when she once spoke about him.
“Dad was a grafter. He taught me you have to work twice as hard, twice as long, to be the best,” she said.
This year, Kelly is entering the jungle with that mindset — and no old feud, no presenter duo, and certainly no previous TV drama will stand in her way. For Ant and Dec, the question now is simple:
