The social media star slams reports of her six-figure fee and reveals the wet, sleep-deprived reality of life in the jungle a year on from when she took part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
For years, fans of ITV’s I’m A Celeb have speculated about the ‘astronomical’ fees commanded by the stars who brave the Australian bush. But according to former campmate GK Barry, also known as Grace Keeling, the reality of the pay packet is far less glamorous than the headlines suggest.
The social media sensation, who won over the nation during her stint in the jungle last year, has hit out at reports claiming she walked away with a massive fortune, branding the rumours “a load of s***.” Amidst the trials and tribulations of camp life, reports circulated that Grace had secured a fee of £150,000 for her appearance. However, the podcast host insists that figures reported in the press are vastly inflated.
“The Daily Mail like to release what we’re all being paid for it, it’s a load of s***,” she said in a TikTok video. To illustrate just how wide of the mark the rumours were, she joked that a fee of that magnitude would have fundamentally changed her behaviour in the trials.
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“They said I got £150,000,” she said. “If I got paid 150 [thousand] Great British pounds to go in that jungle, I wouldn’t have even screamed once during a trial. They always overdo it, we don’t get paid that much.”
Beyond the pay dispute, Grace was keen to dispel the long-standing conspiracy theory that the camp is a sound stage or that celebrities retreat to luxury hotels once the cameras stop rolling. She described the living conditions as genuinely miserable, particularly when the weather turns.
“The camp is covered but it’s covered by a flimsy bit of material that opens up and shuts so when it rains, you still get rained on,” she revealed. “Our camp got so flooded last year, everything was wet, our sleeping bags, the fire kept going out…”
She added: “Everyone thinks the jungle isn’t a real jungle, but the place is giving jungle. There are animals, you could not find your way through there easily, and we do stay there, we do sleep there… We don’t go off to the hotel at night, I wish we did.”
While they don’t get hotels, the celebrities do get one small mercy: they aren’t allowed to poison themselves. Grace revealed a behind-the-scenes secret about how the campmates manage to cook obscure jungle rations like eel without making themselves ill.
It involves a producer known as the “Voice of God” who speaks over a tannoy system.
“You cook it until you think it’s done,” she explained. “And if you go to take it off and it’s not done, the voice of God will be like, ‘that could probably do with 10 more minutes’. So you’re never at risk of eating something raw.”
Perhaps the most gruelling aspect of the show isn’t the creepy crawlies, but the schedule. Grace painted a picture of a routine designed to keep the stars exhausted.
The day begins when the hosts arrive live on air. “We hear Ant and Dec do I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here so we know it’s 7.30 in the morning,” she said.
However, the days are long. Dinner often doesn’t arrive until 8pm or 9pm, followed by washing up and mandatory diary room sessions.
“Before you’re allowed to go to bed, you all have to do your bush telegraph things,” she recalled. “So I genuinely think we were going to bed at midnight and up again at 6.30am.”
GK Barry placed fifth in the 2024 series, being the eight contestant eliminated from the jungle.
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