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Clutching each other as tightly as they could, Morgan Burtwistle – better known as Angry Ginge to his five million social media followers – and mum Michelle delighted TV audiences last night with what has become an annual tear-jerker on I’m a Celebrity.
But there was nothing typical about this family meet-up on the ITV flagship show.
For a start, the duo are more used to watching television than appearing on it. Add to that the fact that it was Michelle’s first time in Australia, where the show is filmed.
And don’t get her started on the idols – Martin Kemp and Lisa Riley – with whom her 24-year-old son, raised in an ex-council house, has been rubbing shoulders for the past three weeks.
‘I’ve missed him so much. We were hugging each other and crying, it’s the longest we’ve been without speaking,’ Michelle told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview after she and Morgan’s 27-year-old sister Tasha visited him in the jungle.
‘We had such a great chat and a laugh. He was gutted that I didn’t give him the football results!’
And that, in a nutshell sums up the hilariously honest and down-to-earth appeal of the online streamer few viewers had heard of before his appearance on the show he’s now tipped to win.
A staunch Manchester United supporter, Morgan gained notoriety online for losing his temper at football matches he was watching live on the gaming platform Twitch – dubbed the ‘Gogglebox of the internet’.
He would also play video games and film himself for up to ten hours a day in what has become a form of chat show, and has earned him (as a very successful player) up to £1million in the last year alone through subscriptions, donations and sponsorship deals.
It’s a niche corner of the internet, so when I’m A Celeb bosses signed him up for this series, it was beyond the wildest imagination of this modest family.
But for single mother Michelle, who worked multiple jobs including in a school kitchen, as a cleaner and in a care home to bring in £12,500 a year to support her two children on a council estate in Salford, Morgan’s charm and versatility is no surprise.
She says: ‘We lived in a rough area for gangs, it could have easily gone that way for him.
‘But we kept him busy with the after-school clubs – cubs, football, theatre, rugby and he loved them all.’
‘He did cheerleading as well,’ she laughs. ‘They actually won a competition out of all the schools in the area.’
It’s an image that will no doubt amuse his millions of Twitch streamer fans as it’s a far cry from the foul-mouthed red-faced football fan which earned him the moniker, Angry Ginge.
But at his core is a softness that’s made him an unlikely hit with the 11million viewers of this year’s show.
‘He just loves being with people,’ Michelle recalls. ‘That’s why I think he’s enjoying the jungle so much so it’s not a surprise that he’s getting on with the campmates you wouldn’t have expected him to.’
Morgan grew particularly close to the American comedian, Ruby Wax, who is almost 50 years his senior, because, Michelle explained, ‘They’ve got the same sense of humour and are bantering like nan and grandson.’
But perhaps most exciting for the mother-of-two is Morgan’s friendship with Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp and actress Lisa Riley.
‘I used to watch Emmerdale back in the day, so watching him banter with Lisa, like they are brother and sister winding each other up, is madness.’
Together with daughter Tasha, the pair have spent the past few days at the five-star Marriott hotel in Queensland – ‘going for meals, having a drink and a laugh with Shirlie Kemp’, Martin’s wife, from the eighties pop band, Pepsi & Shirlie, which Michelle also used to listen to.
But perhaps even more bizarre for Michelle is receiving messages on her personal Facebook account from girls swooning over her son, who’s become something of a Gen Z heartthrob since showing his softer side.
Ginge previously revealed his ex-girlfriend – who remains unidentified – broke up with him via text while he was livestreaming on the internet and he had to keep recording for six hours.
Michelle explained: ‘I even got a message three days ago from one girl saying, “Hi Michelle, I’m sorry to bother you, but I love your son. I think he’s amazing and one day, hopefully, I’ll meet him, and one day you may become my mother-in-law!”
‘He’s not got many girlfriends at all, he’s too focused on his career, so I hope I don’t come home and they’re all queuing up at my front door!’, she laughs.
Today Michelle lives in a quiet cul-de-sac in Manchester, 40 minutes away from her son whom she sees twice a week after he was able to buy his own house last year from his success as a content creator.
They’ve been living apart for almost seven years, after Morgan left home at 17 to live with his grandmother in a bid to relieve the financial burden on Michelle, who was struggling to pay the mortgage on their ex-council estate house in Eccles.
Morgan was brought up by his mum Michelle after his father was largely absent from his life.
‘He saw me struggling as a single parent growing up,’ Michelle said, ‘And now he thinks it’s his time to make it up to me.
‘He always says to me, “If there’s anything you need or anything you want, just ask me”.
‘He doesn’t do it because he has to, it’s because he wants to and appreciates all I have done for him.’
Two years ago, for Christmas, Morgan gifted her the prize money he won playing a football game with various content creators, streamed by hundreds of thousands, to pay off all her debts.
And he humbly credits the genesis of his burgeoning career to his grandfather, Michelle’s dad.
‘Every Easter, he used to go to Blackpool with his grandfather,’ she recalls, ‘with all his young cousins, they used to stay over, and they always played Monopoly. And, without a doubt, every time Morgan would win and they all used to get annoyed.
‘My dad was sat in the corner of the room and he said to one of his friends, he’s going to be a businessman one day.
‘When his grandad died in February 2021, something told Morgan to just try streaming again to get these viewers up.
‘That’s exactly what he did and he always says, “It was his grandad’s prophecy.”‘
But it wasn’t always bright predictions for Morgan’s future.
Michelle recalled how, in primary school, she was called in by his teachers on several occasions who pleaded with her to tell him to stop being the class clown and ‘telling jokes at inappropriate moments’.
By secondary school he’d cleaned up his act and was made head boy.
Before he discovered Twitch, Morgan wanted to become a footballer like his idol Wayne Rooney.
Although a gifted player, he was deemed ‘too chunky’ and decided to become a policeman, earning a distinction in his Public Service college course.
However he soon gave that up after the Metropolitan Police ran into reputational problems and ‘lost respect’ as Morgan saw it, so he returned to sport and worked as a school dinner attendant to support himself during his studies.
But, thankfully, none of that worked out as he found Twitch in 2020, and ironically now considers Wayne Rooney, a friend.
Michelle says the family are going to spend a ‘quiet’ Christmas together and digest the ‘utter madness’ that has just occurred.
Smiling at the prospect, she said: ‘We’ll probably be at Morgan’s because he’s got a new house now.’
And with typical Burtwistle understatement she adds: ‘It’s been quite a lot the last two weeks or so.’
