Olivia Attwood has broken her silence on her exit from this year’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, explaining that a routine blood test showed she was anaemic.
It was announced on Monday that the former Love Island contestant had left the jungle after 24 hours on medical grounds, after being told by the programme’s medical team that it was not safe for her to return to camp.
Olivia has now discussed the truth behind her departure in an interview with the Mail On Sunday, saying she was “absolutely devastated”, “gutted” and “heartbroken” to have to leave the ITV reality show.
She said that the blood test – which all the contestants undergo randomly throughout the show – also showed low sodium and potassium levels, leading staff to immediately take her to A&E.
“I was so scared, I was like: ‘What the hell is wrong with me?’,” she said. “They couldn’t give me an answer, they just told me that they had to get me to the hospital immediately.
“The results were really, really low when they put them into their reader and they consulted with another doctor off-site.
“I had those bloods done in England before I left, and they were fine. I was confused and of course very, very worried.”
However, when the tests were repeated in the hospital they came back normal, according to Olivia.
She was then taken to a hotel to sleep while ITV decided whether she could re-enter the camp, but bosses later decided they were not “willing to authorise my return and therefore I wasn’t insured”, despite the star claiming she’d been given a “clean bill of health” from the hospital.
She added: “If I went back into camp, they feared my levels might drop and it could be detrimental to my health and wellbeing.”
Asked whether she will receive her full fee for the show – reported to be between £100,000 to £125,000 – she replied: “We haven’t discussed that yet.”
HuffPost UK has contacted ITV for comment and is awaiting a response.
Olivia also said she was not aware Matt Hancock was joining the show until she turned her phone on at Brisbane Airport on her way home.
She said: “It’s funny to see him slimed and gunked but it isn’t funny if you didn’t get to hold someone’s hand when they died while he was snogging someone in his office.
“NHS workers are protesting to get paid enough money to survive and he is out earning money in the jungle. That doesn’t seem right, does it?”
An ITV spokesperson previously said: “As a precautionary measure Olivia needed to leave the jungle to undergo some medical checks.
“Unfortunately the medical team has advised it is not safe for Olivia to return to camp as there needs to be a further investigation.
“She has been absolutely brilliant and she’ll be very much missed on the show.”