I’m A Celeb’s Paul Burrell reveals secret feud in camp as he admits ‘friction’ with campmate
PAUL Burrell has revealed there was friction between him and Phil Tuffnel while in the I’m A Celebrity… South Africa camp.
The pair returned to the show earlier this month for a special legends version, but didn’t always see eye to eye.
Speaking about life in the camp and his secret struggles with the pro cricketer, Paul said: “Phil [Tufnell] and I, I had to pick him [for a trial] and he didn’t speak to me. But Phil’s a professional sportsman so you have to understand the world he comes from.
“He doesn’t like to be defeated, he wants to win all the time but if the ball is in somebody else’s court he doesn’t like it, he wants to be holding the ball.”
He continued to Slingo: “I understand that dynamic, that’s why we had a bit of friction. Not much, but we joked when we came out, about his wife who he calls ‘the Duchess’, and they are a lovely couple.
“When you’re in the boiling pot in the middle of a jungle little things can irritate and boil over and I think at times you get to a point where the elastic band breaks.”
Paul first competed in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2004, finishing in second place to comedian Joe Pasquale.
He says he found it very ‘liberating’ doing the show this time round.
Paul explained: “I loved it. I loved doing it a second time around with that cast of people because they’ve done it before, they knew the ropes and they knew how to behave, generally. They knew the process of making the show and I loved it.
“I loved the people in it, I really did. For me, going into it 19 years later to do it again as a different person, I felt, was very liberating.
“My world had changed and this is what I mean with the monarchy too, it’s changing. Charles has changed, Camilla has changed, everybody has changed, nothing stays the same. So for me, I didn’t stay the same.
“I was now married to a man instead of being married to my wife, and yet I’ve evolved and moved on and become myself.
“When I did it 19 years ago I couldn’t be myself because I was too busy looking over my shoulder, whether somebody was going to say something bad or if there was going to be some story in the press, I had to hide then.”
He added: “This time around I actually didn’t even think. I thought nobody’s watching, nobody’s listening. I’m just going to have a bit of fun and what you saw was me having fun.”