Jennie McAlpine suffered an emotional moment in the ‘I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!’ jungle, breaking down in tears over her late father.
The ‘Coronation Street’ actress started to cry as the campmates all shared their reasons for signing up to the ITV reality show on Wednesday (22 November).
As ‘Hollyoaks’ star Jamie Lomas checked if she was OK, Jennie opened up about her father’s death.
“Yeah it’s good – I lost my dad earlier this year, so…” she weeped.
Rebekah Vardy offered her a hug, before Jamie told her: “He’d be really proud of you for doing this, darling.”
Jennie, who is best known for playing Fizz on ‘Corrie’, continued: “We were like bestest, bestest friends, he would have told me to do it. I said before I came he told me to do things that I’m brave enough to do.”
Prior to entering the jungle, the star spoke about how he was her inspiration for taking part in the show.
“It was a big thing,” she admitted. “But I knew he would have told me to do it. He always told me to do stuff and he always encouraged me.
“He kept saying ‘Give it a go to find out if you are good enough or not’. And so that was a big part of it.”
After he passed away in March, Jennie also shared a touching tribute on Twitter, writing: “On behalf of our family, I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words. It’s wonderful to hear from our many people who Dad supported (he never used the world help!) and encouraged and changed the lives of.
“To me and my brother Thomas he was our lovely Dad. We will always love him and be thankful for that.”
‘I’m A Celebrity’ airs nightly at 9pm on ITV.