Anne Hegerty has become the fifth celebrity to leave the ‘I’m A Celebrity’ jungle, following Wednesday night’s elimination.
The Chaser, known as “The Governess” on the ITV game show ‘The Chase’, lasted 18 days on ‘I’m A Celebrity’, but was voted off after the latest round of public votes.
Speaking to hosts Holly Willoughby and Declan Donnelly, Anne had only good things to say about her campmates, revealing: “Really, I could not remotely have done it without 10 fantastic other people. It was all down to them, it was all about them.”
She joked that she’d learned she was “much more of a wimp” than she realised, commenting: “I thought I’d be all sort of strong, and I’d overcome my fears, but I was like ‘no, no, no, no, no, not critters’. Any invertebrate that wiggles, no, no, no, no, no.
“I actually found myself becoming less tolerant of things like that. I’ve had my mealworms in my bra, OK, not ever doing that again, thank you.”
Reflecting on how tough she found the ‘I’m A Celebrity’ experience at the start of the series, Anne revealed that on her first morning she told producers she wanted to walk, but was ultimately talked out of it.
When asked about her autism, which she won praise from viewers for her candid conversations about, Anne noted: “It’s not the sort of thing I want to bang on about, but if people want me to talk about it, I’m happy to talk about it.
“If people understood that… when you suddenly come up against a situation that you thought you’d [predicted], but you haven’t…
“People sometimes say that a problem with autism is a failure of imagination, we’re not good at imagining outcomes, we’re not good at really being able to imagine what something’s going to be like even if we think we’ve done all the work we need to. And I just sort of… I was a zombie in Snake Rock for at least the first 24 hours.”
Anne also said she was happy to have bonded with women in the jungle, noting: “There’s not an awful lot of female quizzers, and I tend to hang out with quizzers a lot, and most of them are men. And I find I gravitate more to men… but everyone was just so lovely. And when Rita went yesterday I was like ‘no!!’... she’s way younger than me, but she was like my mum!”
The former campmate ended the interview by naming Nick Knowles as her pick to win, saying: “I think the final three are going to be John, Harry and Nick. They’re all doing fantastically well, they’re all so popular, but I think it’s going to be Nick.”
This latest elimination leaves six celebrities still in the jungle, with comedy actress Emily Atack, singer Fleur East and The Vamps star James McVey remaining in the competition.
‘I’m A Celebrity’ airs every night on ITV.