Ant and Dec have spoken out on the chaotic I’m A Celebrity finale and their carpark confrontation with Jimmy Bullard and David Haye following the show on their podcast.
The Geordie duo struggled to control the live programme on Friday night, which received over 1,000 complaints to TV watchdog Ofcom as teary Adam Thomas was voted the winner.
Jimmy, 47, was given the opportunity to speak to Adam, 37, after their furious exchange in the jungle where Jimmy said ‘I’m A Celebrity’ in a trial as they fought for their survival in the show.
Former footballer Jimmy accused Adam of being ‘abusive, aggressive and intimidating’ during the expletive row in the pre-recorded show last year, before boxer David claimed he was was playing the victim.
Host Ant, 50, insisted that what was televised was a ‘clear representation of what happened’ but some bits were omitted because they were ‘unbroadcastable.’
Speaking about the scenes that will go down in reality TV history, Dec said: ‘We had a show on Friday night…’
Ant and Dec have spoken out on the chaotic I’m A Celebrity finale and their carpark confrontation with Jimmy Bullard and David Haye after the show
Pictures taken from the encounter on Friday showed Ant leaving the studios in West London with his wife Anne-Marie Corbett
Ant continued: ‘If you didn’t see it on Friday, I bet you read about it!
‘The first question was to Jimmy about why did you call I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here on the night. I said I disagreed with it.’
Speaking on the latest episode of Hanging Out on their YouTube channel Belta Box, Dec went on: ‘He had a bit of a bee in his bonnet and he wanted to get that off his chest.
‘We’d heard that Gemma and Adam had left the WhatsApp group.’
Speaking about what happened after the show came off air, Dec said he and Ant left separately, before adding: ‘I saw David Haye on the way out, he said “what about that then? Hope you get some good ratings for that one”.’
Ant then interjected to say: ‘He doesn’t care, that’s David. That’s what he does, he’s a boxer, that’s his stock in trade, you know.’
The 50-year-old also addressed what appeared to be a tense exchange with Jimmy in the carpark as he left the studios.
Playing down their interaction, Ant started by joking: ‘There’s two people in the car park, David Haye and Jimmy Bullard and I thought “oh god, how’s your luck?”
‘I went over to David Haye, and he was like, “how brilliant was that? Wasn’t that great?”
‘And I was like, well, it was certainly talk about TV. I wouldn’t call it great, but anyway, we had a laugh and we were cool.
‘And then I walked off and seen Jimmy Bullard, and I just shook his hand and I was like, “look after yourself”, and he was like, “yeah, cheers”.
‘So there was no confrontation. He wasn’t shouting at me, I wasn’t shouting at him.’
Pictures taken from the encounter showed Ant leaving the studios in West London with his wife Anne-Marie Corbett.
He appeared to laugh off the matter as Jimmy attempted to get his attention, before a security guard stepped in.
During Jimmy’s heated conversation in the finale, he admitted he ‘threw Adam under the bus’ when he quit a trial that sparked the explosive clash that left viewers at home in shock.
He said he had to leave for personal reasons and that if he didn’t say ‘I’m A Celebrity’ in the challenge, he would not have received his full pay.
‘Listen, Adam and all of you can be upset with me and I absolutely threw him under the bus, I get it and I’ll wear that,’ Jimmy said.
‘But what I don’t stand on, is someone being abusive, aggressive and intimidating, I don’t stand on that.’
Welcoming Ant and Dec to share their opinion on the matter, Jimmy said: ‘You [pointing to the hosts] were there and you didn’t show any of that [footage].
‘You didn’t show any of the C-bombs, it’s a liberty,’ Jimmy fumed.
Ant argued: ‘The reason we didn’t air the C-bomb is because that is unbroadcastable.
‘I was there and I didn’t think it was intimidating. I was there Jim.’
In the teaser clip for the next podcast episode, Dec went on: ‘He had a bit of a bee in his bonnet and he wanted to get that off his chest. We’d heard that Gemma and Adam had left the WhatsApp group’
This year’s All Stars series has been plagued with bullying rows and controversial spats between feuding cast mates – Adam, Jimmy Bullard (pictured) and David Haye
Adam’s unveiling as the show’s winner during a live instalment ended in chaos as Jimmy Bullard and David Haye reignited their feud with Thomas in front of a stunned studio audience
David, who has been accused of ‘bullying’ Adam during the show, disagreed with Ant and backed the former footballer as he demanded answers as to why Adam was hurling obscenities at Jimmy.
Adam hit back at David, telling him to ‘let the finalists speak’, which received cheers from the crowd in the live audience.
Since the finale, Gemma Collins publicly condemned Jimmy and David, saying they should be ‘disgusted with themselves’.
Boxer David is also reportedly suing ITV and is said to have instructed his lawyers to send a letter to the channel and he is demanding a full investigation into the show edit.
David was accused of ‘bullying’ Adam on the programme, which was filmed last year, and he was also criticised by viewers for his comments about women.
According to The Sun, the retired athlete feels he was deliberately edited to be the show’s ‘pantomime villain’.
A source said: ‘David is absolutely gung-ho about all of this – he is incandescent with rage about how the whole series has been handled and feels he’s being made a scapegoat by ITV.
‘He can cite examples – such as the Gemma Collins fat-shaming moment, which used clever editing and snide eye-rolls, etc to make his remark look damning.
On Wednesday, Adam said he felt exploited by ITV over the way in which the live finale was handled.
Speaking on his podcast with his brothers Adam and Scott, he said: ‘I think for David [Haye] and some of these campmates who have come out, I feel like it’s just a show to them, do you know what I mean?
‘It’s entertainment. It’s fun. And for me it’s not about entertainment, I’m not playing a character, I’m not here for anyone else’s agenda but my own, to have a f***ing laugh and enjoy this experience.
I’m A Celebrity … South Africa winner Adam Thomas says he felt exploited by ITV during the show’s explosive live final on Friday evening
‘And I feel that’s the most disturbing thing for me, looking at David, and even after the show and everything he did, he sent me a voice note saying “Ah mate, what a great show that was, so happy you won, congratulations.”
‘I just sent him a message back and said look, I think this is where I draw the line, I hope you find happiness bro, but I’m done now.
‘It’s hard, the whole experience. That live show, I just felt like I’d just been exploited, and I think you can see it, at the end of it. I felt like I was in the midst of it all, and it wasn’t even about me.’
An emotional Thomas, who has been open about his struggles with mental health issues, also described Haye’s actions in camp as definite ‘bullying’ and claimed the former boxer left him in an emotionally vulnerable state after ‘getting inside his head.’
‘What happened to me in camp was bullying, that is the matter of fact about it – it was bullying,’ he said.
‘And I don’t think it’s fair, for people who were going through what I was going through in the real world, to pass it off as banter, because it’s not.
‘And the reason why I didn’t speak up for myself when I should have done is because when I was in camp, everyone was passing it off as banter, as “Oh, he’s just doing it because he loves you.” So I laughed it off. I laughed it off and pretended that it was alright.’
He added: ‘I can see it from the other campmates’ lens why it may seem like it was banter and not bullying, I understand it. But I’m telling you my truth, and how I felt in there, and it was bullying.
‘I can also tell you that I spoke to David when I got out, and I asked him why. Why did you keep doing this to me? Why did you do it? And he told me, “I’ve never met a nicer guy, I just wanted to break you.”
‘If that isn’t classed as bullying, then I don’t know what is.’
