Katie Price had her eyes on Declan Donnelly, as revealed by his presenting partner Ant McPartlin. The famous Geordie pair have crossed paths with Katie numerous times, largely due to her two stints on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
It was after her initial jungle adventure that Ant suggested Katie, who would go on to marry fellow contestant Peter Andre, made advances towards host Dec.
In their joint memoir, ‘Ooh! What A Lovely Pair’, penned in 2009, Ant reminisced about the post-show party where Katie, then known as Jordan, tried to woo Dec, with even her mother trying to set them up. Katie first joined the I’m A Celebrity cast in its third series back in 2004 while she was with Scott Sullivan, who had come to Australia to be by her side.
However, after splitting with Scott to start a romance with Pete, she seemed to have checked whether Dec was available before ultimately coupling up with the ‘Mysterious Girl’ singer outside the jungle. “The other thing I remember from that party is doing shots with Kerry, and Jordan [Katie’s glamour model alter-ego] chasing after Dec, who she had propositioned during her departure interview,” Ant wrote, recalling the memorable wrap party antics, reports the Mirror.
Despite Dec having just split from his childhood sweetheart Clare Buckfield and giving Katie the cold shoulder, her mum Amy Price didn’t give up on playing cupid for her daughter. Ant revealed in his account: “He managed to avoid her all night, but her mum did corner him a couple of times and try to set him up with her. He wasn’t having any of it.”
Katie Price may not have snagged a date with Dec, but she wasn’t left empty-handed as she found love with another I’m A Celebrity staple. Post-jungle life in 2004 saw her and Pete Andre’s romance blossom into marriage by the next year at Hampshire’s Highclere Castle.
The duo welcomed two kids, Junior Andre, now 18, and Princess Andre, 17, but their highly publicised relationship ended in a 2009 divorce. Discussing his eldest children with Alison Hammond on This Morning last year, Pete boasted: “They’re the only jungle babies. They’re the only ones to be born from the show I believe.”
Furthermore, Dec himself wasn’t star-crossed forever, as after the unsuccessful advance from Katie at the wrap party in 2004, he would later fall for TV presenter Georgie Thompson, dating from 2009 until their break up in 2011. Eventually, Dec’s heart was won over by his and Ant’s manager Ali Astall, marrying in 2015 and expanding their family with two children.
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