Josie Gibson made it to the semi-final of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here despite having a phobia of spiders, only two sets of wet clothes for three weeks, and not being entirely sure what she’d signed up for.
Nevertheless, the This Morning presenter, 38, was the last woman standing – making her Queen of the Jungle to all intents and purposes. Before entering, Josie made a point of not asking too many questions about the show – something she may have regretted while she was being walloped by exercise balls during the Cyclone challenge, or indeed when she caught a glimpse of Nigel Farage’s bare arse at camp.
‘It was an emotional one,’ Josie Gibson tells us, ‘I felt very proud to be the last woman standing.’ And so did her team at This Morning, who welcomed her back to work with her very own throne. ‘I was nearly in the final but not quite,’ she adds, ‘and they said I know you weren’t the Queen of the Jungle, but you’ll always be our Queen.’ For many viewers, Josie’s warmth, sense of humour and ability to stay open minded throughout the series are what made her their Queen too.
‘It was a lot harder than I thought it would be,’ she admits. ‘I thought you woke up every morning, went to wardrobe and got ready for the day. No no no! They give you two lots of outfits and you wash and dry your clothes. But we had 16 days of torrential rain! Nick [Pickard], bless him, made us a washing line by the fire.’
An intense experience by anyone’s standards – and perhaps one less glamorous than the 12 celebrities are used to. ‘We were all saying we wouldn’t be able to get through this experience without each other,’ she Josie. ‘It was just lovely! I’ve made friends for life.’
Luckily for Josie, asking questions and getting to know her fellow campmates came naturally to her, given that it's literally what she does for a living. Something that was noticeable in her interactions with the former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage. ‘I was always quite interested in Nigel because he nicknames himself “the disrupter” and I just wanted to get to know him,’ she says. ‘I got into politics a few years ago and promised myself that I wouldn’t ever do it again. So it was lovely to find out about Nigel.’
Hot on the heels of MP Matt Hancock’s stint last year, Nigel’s booking was not without controversy. For many people, the Brexit pioneer – who describes himself as ‘hated by millions’ – did not deserve the opportunity to rehabilitate his image on the show. Nor did he deserve to be paid £1m for it – the biggest fee in the show’s history.
‘When we went in, I didn’t know a lot about him, I will say that,’ the presenter tells us. ‘But he’s a very open book and you could have asked him anything and he would answer you.’ As to whether she was surprised to see him in the jungle, Josie sits on the fence. ‘I think it’s fair for anybody to go into the jungle,’ she asserts. ‘Everybody thinks differently, and we’ve all got to learn to communicate with each other. We don’t have to write each other off.' Adding that, 'We can still be friends.’
And Josie made plenty of those in the jungle, including the winner Sam Thompson, Hollyoaks star Nick Pickard and Britney’s younger sister Jamie-Lynn Spears – who Josie says she bonded with over motherhood. ‘It's funny I didn't know much about her,' the presenter admits, 'but she was so normal and so down to earth.'
Josie, who shares her five-year-old son Reggie with her ex-partner Terry, says that motherhood has changed her in more ways than she could have expected. Not only has it changed her priorities, but it’s helped her become more accepting of her body – something she’s openly struggled with in the past.
‘I’m the same as any woman. We’re hard on ourselves, aren’t we?’ she says. ‘But having my little boy, I’ve learnt to love myself a lot more. My body has done something so special for me and it’s created somebody so perfect and special in my life. So for that I have more respect for it.’
However, she admits it’s still 'a work in progress’ for women to fully love their bodies and she's hoping to hold on to her ‘jungle bod’ for a little while longer. Unattainable beauty standards, in Josie's eyes, are something all women have to battle with whether they're in the public eye or not. ‘I think with social media, everybody’s going through the same thing,’ she adds. ‘We’re so critical of ourselves and I think we need to be a little bit more relaxed.’
Fortunately for the I’m A Celeb star, relaxing is exactly what she has planned this Christmas. Josie is heading to Celtic Manor in Wales with her family and friends and says, 'I don’t have to cook or do a thing, I’m just having a proper break.'
And despite some reports, she adds there’s no ‘mystery man’ this Christmas. ‘I can’t even have a picture with a bloke without people thinking I’m with them,' she jokes. ‘I’ve got a five-year-old to think about and I’m very cautious of who I let in so I couldn’t just start dating someone I didn’t really know. Going forward I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing...’
Instead, she's going into 2024 with a pseudo Queen of the Jungle title, one of the biggest jobs on morning television and her five-year-old son – that's no bad thing at all.
Nikki Peach is news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and current affairs.