I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! flop Gemma Collins blamed her early exit on “a horrific ordeal” shortly before she joined the show and said she had handed over her fee to charity.

The reality TV star, who found fame on The Only Way Is Essex, quit after three days while grumbling about hunger and complaining she thought she may have malaria.

A handout shot of I'm A Celebrity contestant Gemma Collins
Gemma Collins quit the show after just three days (ITV/Press Association Images)

But she told ITV’s This Morning that “in hindsight” she should not have gone on the show but did not “want to let anyone down”.

She said: “I had been through a horrific ordeal – 24 hours before I left for Australia – and I’ve had a terrible backlash from the media and the general public. But it’s not their fault because they don’t know what happened to me.

“And I’ve wanted to go in to the jungle for three and a half years – ever since I was lucky enough to come into TV, that was the one job that I wanted my whole life and what happened to me was horrific but I just thought ‘Gem, you’ve got to do this, you have to do this, not only for yourself, but for everyone that has supported you throughout your years on Towie’.”

Asked if she got her full fee for the hit ITV show, she said: “No I didn’t – I have been given a percentage which is going to charity. It’s going to a children’s charity for starving children.”