Horror movie: Gillian McKeith, posing here as a Baywatch lifeguard for heat magazine, said she didn't regret going on I'm A Celebrity
She was the jungle star that viewers and her fellow campers loved to hate but proved to be the most entertaining.
And I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here contestant Gillian McKeith said even though she hated the entire experience and would never do it again, she has no regrets.
Speaking exclusively to heat magazine in her first interview since leaving the jungle, she admitted that she had no idea what she was letting herself in for.
When asked why she went into the jungle, she said: 'I liked the idea of going to Australia and I thought I'd get a bit of a holiday.
'There's no doubt that I didn't completely understand what I was getting myself into. I thought it would be an interesting way of challenging myself.
'When I finally realised what I was facing, I was absolutely mortified. I'd never seen the show because I don't like insects, so it's not the kind of thing I'd watch. Before the show I was just so busy, I didn't have time to look it up or anything.'
But she said she had no regrets about being a contestant but she would not do it again.
Gillian, 51, said: 'I've definitely faced my fears. I'm a lot stronger, in a lot of ways. But from now on I'll be living in a concrete jungle as far away from nature as I possibly can.'
Her fainting episodes have now become legendary after she collapsed a couple of times when faced with enduring a Buchtucker Trail.
She denied it was fake and said she has a history of passing out, adding: 'The first time I fainted - and it sounds quite hilarious - was when I got excited because I thought I saw Santa Claus.
'All I can say to people is that I've got scoliosis and there's no way in a million years I can risk banging my back. I've only fainted 12 to 15 times in my life. IT has to be something pretty intense.'
However, her fellow camper Allison Hammond said Gillian did fake her fainting spells.
The TV presenter and former Big Brother contestant said Gillianr told her she 'had' to faint in order to escape doing another task.
Alison said: 'I'm not an uncaring person, but it was hard not to giggle when Gillian fainted. I was so pleased because it meant we were going to eat.
'But when I told her afterwards that I was glad she fainted, she just said, "I had to". If you want to call that faking it, then so be it.'
Revealing the truth: Alison Hammond says Gillian McKeith told her she faked her fainting fits on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
And Alison added to Reveal magazine that she started to realise there were more things Gillian had fabricated for the sake of the show.
She said: 'I believed Gillian when she said she couldn't work the digger. I also believed that she had a phobia of bugs, but now I'm out and talking to people, I'm starting to think differently about her.
'It seems like things she did were premeditated. Gillian's daughters knew the Jungle Gill song before she even sang it on the show, yet she said she made it up as she went along.
'I had to faint': Gillian's first fainting fit, after completing her first Bushtucker Trial
'She also knew to hide seasoning in her pants, yet she claimed she'd never seen the show before.'
Alison, who found fame when she appeared on Big Brother in 2002, also said she was disappointed when her entrance into the camp on day five didn't go down very well with the rest of the campmates.
She said: 'I was so pumped up and excited when my day finally arrived that I ran in shouting, "The party's here!" But what followed was practically tumbleweed - the reception was rubbish.
'I think, because they'd all bonded, no-one was bothered I was there. Jenny Eclair was the only one who showed me around. I instantly thought, "I've made a massive mistake".
'It was such a reality check. It was pouring with rain and my bed was really uncomfortable. I definitely came down with a bump.'
And Alison said while she did enjoy her time on the ITV programme, she wouldn't recommend taking part.
She explained: 'I wouldn't encourage any celebrity to do it. I couldn't exercise because it was so wet and slippy and the toilet was completely minging.
'There was mud everywhere and spiders crawled over my head and in my ear when I was asleep. It was far worse than I thought it was going to be.
'Saying that, I don't have any regrets. I now know I can cope with anything.'
The full interview with Alison appears in this week's Reveal magazine, out now and the full interview with Gillian McKeith is in this week's heat magazine, also out now
Source:Dailymail
