Former I’m A Celebrity contestant Fatima Whitbread has revealed she kept the cockroach that got rammed up her nose on the show all those years ago – and even had it waxed.
In the 2011 series, around 7,500 cockroaches were put in the former Olympic athlete’s helmet during a Bushtucker Trial and one of them crawled up her nose.
The trial was stopped and the show’s medic Bob was brought in with a syringe full of water, and managed to flush the roach out of the javelin thrower’s nose – while it was a while before it broke free.
On tonight’s ITV special I’m A Celebrity… A Jungle Story, which celebrates 20 series of the show, Fatima spoke about the shocking moment and got out her preserved bug for the camera.
She said: “It did come out and didn’t last long, and I’ll have to show you this because I kept him and had him waxed, and he’s quite comfortably sitting in there.”
(Image: ITV)
Fatima then held up a glass container to the camera filled with wax, which encased the bug, as she added: “LB I call him because at the time he was a little b*****d.”
After Fatima got rid of the pesky roach, she continued with another trial to beat Pat Sharp in a tie-break, which resulted in his exit .
Fatima then put the creepy crawly in a bottle to take back and show her campmates.
(Image: ITV)
The athlete also spoke on Loose Women in 2012 about how the bug got wedged up there.
She said: “That was a scary moment – they edited it I know. It was up there for 20 minutes.
“The doctor looked and said there was nothing there but I knew – you know when there is an alien body inside your body.
(Image: ITV)
“It took 20 minutes and three different solutions to flush it out. It shot out my mouth and he hit the ground running like an Olympic cockroach, but I got it.”
The new series of I’m A Celebrity airs on on Sunday, November 15 at 9pm on ITV.
This year it is taking place at Gwrych Castle, Abergele in North Wales – instead of the normal filming location Australia due to the pandemic.
Viewers will see the celebrities undertake gruelling trials and fun-filled challenges to win food and treats.
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/fatima-whitbread-kept-cockroach-up-22978987