Melvin Odoom was rushed out of the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! camp in agony – after begging for help in the middle of the night.
The 44-year-old had to be rescued by a security guard during a storm, after the Radio 1 DJ woke up drenched after a night where he’d barely eaten.
And he told how the experience left him on the verge of quitting the hit ITV show, which sees celebrities faccing challenges while living in the Australian outback.
He explained: “I had my mic on, and I was like, ‘guys, I want help’. This guy came out like a commando…he had a light on, and he’s like ‘Melvin are you okay, come with me.”
The Mirror reports viewers watched as Melvin sobbed on Oti Mabuse on the night in question. But the star says his meltdown was much worse as nearly all the campmates took it in turns to be with him.
Asked if he contemplated quitting, he admitted: “Yes, because I found it difficult, and I thought the finish line seemed quite far away.” But he says he decided to tough it out – because he left first in Strictly Come Dancing.
He added: “I didn’t want to let my family down. And the most similar process to this that I’ve ever done in my life was Strictly and I was the first person out, and I was aware of that in my head.” Melvin explains he was already a naturally emotional person.
And he said his tears in camp left him embarrassed. “You’ve got people like Oti and Alan who are really strong, and Coleen, who I don’t think she shed a tear once during the time when I was there,” he says.
“And I was like, ‘How can I sit here crying when these guys have got little babies at home and they’re just holding it together?’” He says Danny Jones offered to make his bed, while Maura Higgins gave him a tissue, as Dean McCullough and Oti also came over.
He adds: “When Oti came she just reminded me of family and she held my hand and I started bawling. I thought that was the worst thing ever. I was quite embarrassed.” Later Barry McGuigan came and hugged him, and held him tightly.
“When he held my head, I was just like, ‘this guy loves me.’ He helped me like a father. I thought these lot love me and that’s what got me through the whole thing,” he says.
“The best thing about the camp was the people. If it wasn’t for them, I feel like I would have wanted to leave a lot sooner.” Melvin also confirmed that Dean WAS work-shy despite his insisting to the Mirror he did the chores.
He said: “I was like, ‘bro, let’s get to work.’ There’s buckets to be carried here, and then my man was doing Reiki on Coleen, or he was having a shower.”
But he said that he hoped his stint on the show would secure his dream date with Carol Vorderman, who he spoke about regularly on the show. “I knew she was a fan of the show, and she’s been on it, so iit might be something she sees,” he says.
Asked if he fancied an invite to the Mirror’s Pride of Britain to meet her, he laughs: “I mean, I enjoy any kind of party, I could DJ there. Carol Vorderman is such a woman. She’s so intelligent, she can fly helicopters. I just think she’s like the coolest person ever.”
When he came out of the jungle, he was met by his sister Yonah on the bridge. And she reassured him that he had not put a foot wrong in camp, or “cancelled”. “When I saw my sister, I said, ‘was everything okay?’ And she’s like, ‘bro you did so well.’” he says.
“And that settled me, because you’ve got no idea what people think of you. Oti was my sister in there, but I trust my real sister. She just knows me 100% so when she said it, I could relax. I’ve not been cancelled yet.”
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