There’s a plethora of problematic men making up this year’s I’m A Celeb line-up including Matt Hancock who broke COVID rules – sorry guidance – and had an affair, as well as Boy George who was sentenced to prison for 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort.
But even the show’s hosts have a controversial past as in March 2018,Ant McPartlin was involved in a road traffic collision and found guilty of drink-driving, something campmate Chris Moyles isn’t keen to let the presenter forget.
Apparently, the big bosses at ITV are having to go out of their way to remove certain comments made by the Radio X DJ which are said to be digs at Ant’s controversial past.
A source recently revealed to The Sun some examples of Chris Moyles’ on-the-nose banter saying, 'Everyone knows Chris' humour can be a bit close to the mark and it's been no different in camp.
'But there have been some p***take remarks to Ant that have become a problem, like when Ant and Dec pulled up in the speedboat in the first episode, Chris joked he was surprised they let Ant in anything so fast because he’s known to crash stuff.'
The insider then went on to say that there had been a 'big bottle' on the set of the show, with Chris commenting that it was similar in size to the bottles of vodka that Ant may have at home.
They concluded, 'Chris is friends with the lads and it’s coming from a place of banter, but that obviously doesn’t help in the edit.'
Ant was fined £86,000 for drink-driving - Britain's highest ever penalty for this offence - and banned from driving for 20 months. The judge in the case, Barbara Barnes, also shared how she believed Ant had let down his fans saying, 'I think it will have quite an impact on you to know that you are no longer a man of good character but you carry a record.'
Consequently, Ant, Dec and their team made the decision that Ant would not return to his TV work in 2018 and so he was replaced by Holly Willoughby in his presenting duties of I'm A Celeb for that year's series.
For his part, Ant hasn't spoken about his arrest and guilty verdict since but, during his trial, Ant plead guilty to drink-driving and in a statement read out in court, expressed his remorse for his actions saying, 'I am ashamed and mortified that this happened. I accept full culpability for this and wish to apologise to all concerned … I am incredibly disappointed that have let myself and so many others down on this occasion.'