Across its 22 years on our screens, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! has established certain traditions that viewers expect to see, from the perilous rope bridge to the stomach-churning Bushtucker Trials.
But another I’m A Celeb staple is the jungle shower – if the celebs want to rinse off the various cockroaches, spiders and witchetty grubs they’ve been crawling through to win stars for the camp – they have to wash in the very public jungle shower.
While some of the other female participants in this year’s series have voiced their opposition to the “cringe-worthy” shower scenes, Coleen Rooney has been preparing “religiously” for her swimsuit moments on the show.
An insider claimed to Best Magazine, “Coleen has been hitting the Pilates sessions religiously and thrown herself into having a svelte physique so she looks amazing on screen. There will be younger women on the show with her and she, understandably, wants to feel confident in a bikini.”
She has reportedly been paid the biggest-ever fee for a celebrity on the ITV show, and clearly wants to create some memorable I’m A Celebrity moments.
Myleene Klass became an icon of the show when she showered in her white bikini in 2006, but a number of stars have said it’s not for them. Some of the other female stars going into the jungle this year, such as GK Barry, Tulisa Contostavlos, and Oti Mabuse, have ruled out being filmed having bikini-clad showers.
Tulisa commented: “I think because on a show like this, if you’re standing in the shower, everyone’s very aware that they’re being watched. So it’s like, if you overdo it, it just feels mad cringey to me. I don’t feel like Myleene, years ago, had that in mind. “
She added that while that was fine for Myleene, nowadays, viewers will see the open-air showers as a cynical move. But Coleen is clearly taking no chances, and worked hard to be bikini-body ready before the first episode aired.
Coleen is less worried about the meagre food rations on offer in the jungle, sharing: ‘I don’t think small portions will be as hard as the other things. I am quite petite and I do run around some days and miss a meal.
“But not on purpose,” she added, “more because I’m so busy. When that happens, I don’t get hangry.”
When it comes to the grim challenges, involving dozens of creepy-crawlies, she’s less certain: “I don’t have phobias, but the older you get, things you never got nervous about, you do now,” she said.