Bookies’ favourite Danny Jones nearly missed his chance to enter the I’m A Celebrity jungle after misplacing his passport just hours before his scheduled departure. The McFly singer, who is in the midst of moving home, was convinced his passport had ended up in a packed box amidst the moving chaos.
He frantically searched for it, turning his house upside down and delaying his trip to the recording studio as time ticked away. Danny, who agreed to join the show only weeks before flying out from the UK, admitted: “Leaving the house was one of the most stressful mornings of my life.”
Danny admitted he didn’t know he was going to do the Austalian-based reality show until the last minute and, until then, had been looking forward to a quiet run-up to Christmas after touring with McFly and being a new judge on ITV’s The Voice with bandmate Tom Fletcher.
“So leaving the house was quite stressful. And here’s the double reason why it was stressful: I couldn’t find my passport in the morning. I was literally going, ‘Darling, I’ve got to go to the airport now and I can’t find my passport!'” reports the Mirror.
“It was like, ‘I’ve got to go check the car at the studio, check this place, you know. I’ve got to find my passport. So that’s why you can see that shocking picture of me turning up to the airport looking dishevelled.”
Unable to contain his amusement, he shared: “Well, here’s the thing: I already packed it in my bag! I was already prepped, man. So there’s me, like I went to the drawer where I thought it was, wasn’t there. Panicked, and obviously, because we’re moving house, I’m emptying every single box that we’ve packed over the past few weeks.
“And I went to the studio, because I parked my car there, and I was like, it’s not in my car. I had to go back home, and then as I checked my bag that I was going to the airport with, it was sat there staring at me. I said to my wife, ‘Darling, it’s fine. I found it. I must have packed it last week and forgot about it. I’m so organised I forgot about it.”
Danny has been a key member of the pop-rock boyband McFly since its inception in the early 2000s, alongside Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter, who was crowned king of the jungle in 2011.
ITV viewers have already seen him triumph on The Masked Singer this year. Following his win, he posted an adorable video capturing the moment his six-year-old son Cooper realised that ‘Piranha’, whom he had enjoyed watching on screen, was actually his own dad.
Danny, on the verge of tears, spoke about the difficulty of leaving his wife and son behind. He said: “I couldn’t tell him. It was a little bit like The Masked Singer. As I was leaving, I was like, ‘Daddy’s going away for a few weeks’. But then when it got announced, I’m sure he would find out now, but I said to him, ‘You’re gonna come on an adventure with Mummy and be a good boy’. I’ve never been away for this long.
“We normally have a two-week rule where if it’s any longer than that, you’ve got to come and say hi. FaceTime does help, of course, but my whole communication has been taken away. And it’s not just while you’re in the jungle, it’s during this lockdown period I’m in now for a week as well. So all in all, it will be just over a month.
“It is hard, and you’ve got time with yourself, and I’m a big thinker – a big over-thinker – so it’s a real challenge. But I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and I’m definitely, 100 per cent will be so overexcited and emotional when I see the people that I love the most walking towards me. I think that would be a special moment, and I’m not scared to show my emotions either.”
Despite being a renowned pop star for decades, Danny confessed that he might struggle in camp with the trials and being surrounded by nine strangers. He feels more secure on stage with the band than going solo in camp.
He elaborated: “It’s a scary place to be. Not only are you limited to what you eat, I’m in there with a load of strangers. I’m vulnerable. And because I can’t hide behind… see, everything I’ve done in the past, I feel like I’m protected in, you know, if I’ve got my guitar, or if I’m singing, I’ve always got something to kind of not hide behind, but to protect me.
“I’m more comfortable singing than I am talking. I’m more comfortable playing in front of O2 Arena than doing an interview. It’s just the way I’m wired. So I’m going to be vulnerable, and that scared me. But I’m just gonna do my best and I don’t know, maybe I’ll have some switch that goes on, like survival mode, and I’ve got to do it. But maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll be an absolute wimp. We’ll see.”
Danny is currently the bookies’ favourite to win and he said of the prospect of becoming king of the jungle and winning I’m A Celebrity: “I can’t even fathom what it would feel like to win the jungle. I think why it would probably mean so much is that, even though I may look super confident, we have insecurities, and we’re fragile as human beings. I’ve never been out there as just myself in such a vulnerable state.
“And I think just having the approval of the British public and people that… oh, you actually do like me or whatever, it’s kind of nice to know that, and I think that would be just the cherry on top. And if I won it, I’d definitely, 100 percent get a brand new tattoo of the crown and the stick somewhere on my body to represent it. Absolutely would.”
I’m A Celebrity returns to screens on Sunday November 17 at 9pm on ITV1.