On last night’s episode of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!,Nella Rose proved she’s willing to have the tough conversations. So far, she’s one of only two campmates that have called former Ukip leader Nigel Farage out on his anti-immigrant views – following French TV personality Fred Sirieix who questioned Nigel’s Brexit stance almost immediately upon arriving into the jungle.
Nella’s debate with Nigel has caused division online, but it’s not the only conversation that we should be talking about. In conversation with journalist Grace Dent, Nella’s raw honesty talking about discipline, weight and love showed a vulnerability we rarely see on reality TV.
‘My whole thing is, and this is quite personal, I’ve never started something in my life
Nella’s debate with Nigel has caused division online, but it’s not the only conversation that we should be talking about. In conversation with journalist Grace Dent, Nella’s raw honesty talking about discipline, weight and love showed a vulnerability we rarely see on reality TV.
and finished it,’ Nella said. ‘I always quit, or sign on short term, or think “If I don’t like it, I can leave”. This is the one thing I said, “You know what? I’m going to try and stick it through” but I can already see if I get in my head too much [I’ll leave].’
The conversation prompted Google searches around whether Nella Rose has left the I’m A Celebrity jungle yet, but her authenticity didn’t stop there. ‘When I was younger, I was put in a lot of situations I had no control over where I was sad and miserable,’ Nella explained. ‘So now I have the control over my happiness and the things I want to do, I’ve become obsessed with it, so I think “If you don’t have to do this, don’t”.
Nella was originally born in Belgium, and her family emigrated to the UK when she was seven. In 2015, she began studying at the University of Leicester, but has since noted that she ‘did not want to go there at all’ and would’ve preferred to start working, however she attended University to please her family. Nella lost both her parents within four years of each other, her mother dying in 2016 after long-term illness, and her father passing in 2020.
Speaking of the impact of her father’s death on her, Nella explained that she lost self-control in the immediate aftermath. ‘Lack of self-discipline got me from a size 12 to a size 20,’ Nella said. ‘My dad passed, I locked myself in the house for two months and drank every single day, ate every single day, and it was pandemic.’
When journalist Grace Dent asked Nella what her dream life would look like in a year’s time, the 26-year-old YouTuber shared, ‘I would give men a chance more, because I want to be in a relationship, and I want to be married but I don’t give men a chance…I would live a healthy lifestyle in a disciplined way.’
Now, the conversation has caused a huge spike in Google searches around the star. Sadly, but not surprisingly, many of them centre on Nella’s comments about her weight. ‘Nella Rose before weight gain’ is a major breakout search term on Google, as well as ‘Nella Rose size 12’ and ‘Nella Rose skinny’.
As problematic as they are, plenty of people are now sharing images from Nella’s old YouTube and Instagram posts, feeding the pervasive ‘before and after’ obsession that we usually see reserved for shows like Love Island. But after listening to Nella’s intensely vulnerable words, how can the desire to see what Nella Rose looked like before gaining weight possibly be the main takeaway from that conversation?
This is a young woman opening up about grief and trauma.
This is a young woman opening up about the heavy impact of grief, how childhood trauma can create unhealthy attitudes around discipline, and the impact of such emotional turmoil on dating and relationships. These are all much worthier topics to be discussing and show a deeper side of Nella that we rarely see in her social media content – or from many contestants on reality shows, to be honest.
Despite her bravery in having such vulnerable conversations publicly, the viewing public are choosing to focus not only on her weight gain, but still harping on about her disagreement with Fred Sirieix and now, debating whether she handled the conversation around immigration with Nigel Farage well enough. Four days into I’m A Celebrity, and it appears there is already an insistence to create negative commentary around Nella’s behaviour – picking apart short clips, that we can’t possibly have the entire context for, rather than highlighting the importance of the more vulnerable conversations she’s having in camp.
This is a young woman navigating a new, huge platform, in the Australian jungle no less, surrounded by celebrities a lot more well-versed in public and TV appearances than her. So, let’s shout about her positive moments in camp – they certainly show more of her character than the mild disagreements with men in camp.