I’m A Celebrity’s Frankie Bridge: ‘If I Help Anyone Feel Like They Can Open Up, I’ve Done My Job’

For most mere mortals, we could only dream of being asked to doI'm A Celebrity who last week finished third in the competition atGwyrch Castle in Wales.

For Frankie, saying yes was a combination of the series being in the UK for the second year in a row, after moving from Australia due to Covid, and finally feeling ready after building her confidence by trekking across the Himalayas and Namibia.

'It's been spoken about most years, to be honest,' the mum-of-two tells Grazia over the phone. 'But for me, the fact that it was in Wales this year... For some it may have been negative - but for me, it was a positive in that I didn't have to be on the other side of the world to my kids. So if there was some sort of need for me to get home, I knew I could get there within hours rather than being on the other side of the world.' She also says that the hardest part - above the disgusting trials - was spending time away from her husband, former England player Wayne, and her children.

While she might have box-ticked a lot of trials and iconic IAC moments, one of the standout moments of the series was a candid discussion Frankie had with diver Matty Lee about mental health. where the former Saturdays singer described having depression and anxiety, and suffering a 'breakdown' in her early 20s.

For those who have continued to follow Frankie since her time in the girl group, her honesty about mental health is nothing new. She's written two books on the subject - Grow and Open - and hosts podcast Open Mind. But obviously, speaking about it on such a huge show has brought her message to even more people. 'It's funny, because it's something that I've spent a lot of time talking about publicly,' she says, 'But I suppose I'm A Celeb reaches so many times, and so many people. And so it's just on a different scale.'

'I just think it's amazing if I could help anyone to feel like they can open up or that they realise some things about themselves and realise they're not alone, then amazing,' she adds. 'I've kind of done my job.' The big reaction, she says, is proof that we all need to continue talking about mental health, so there isn't any stigma holding anyone back from reaching out.

'When I first spoke out about it in 2012, it was like a really big deal,' she says. 'Whereas I think now more and more people are talking about it, the stigma is a lot less. But I suppose maybe the big reaction that it's still getting from me talking about it, and I'm A Celebrity, shows that the conversation still needs to continue.'

Stints in the successful jungle typically lead to more TV work - think Stacey Solomon, Vicky Pattison or Toff - and Frankie's going to be no different. She's already back on Loose Women, but, hopefully, there will be other projects, too. 'Seeing the production that goes into [I'm A Celeb], it's so exciting and it's so fun, so [I'm hopefully] doing more things like that within TV. There's things in plan and things in motion.'

READ MORE::a[The Weird Rules You Didn't Know About I'm A Celebrity]{href='https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/tv-and-film/im-a-celebrity-rules/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'}