Graham Norton has already got on with his first year as I’m a Celebrity’s new host and now Richard Madeley is about to follow suit.
The 59-year-old co-host of the daytime television series “This Morning” and “Good Morning Britain” has confirmed he will quit I’m a Celebrity on Monday after being rushed to hospital with an illness during filming in Australia.
He explained he was taken to the Australian hospital by helicopter “because I was coming down with something quite nasty, an infection to my bowel.”
Madeley made the admission to “Jeremy Vine” on BBC Radio 2 on Monday and paid tribute to his partner of 26 years, Judy Finnigan, who was with him in hospital.
He said, “They said, ‘There’s an infection in your bowels and it’s quite dangerous so we’re going to give you antibiotics.’ So they went into the ward and found that I was basically clutching a rock in my hand which sort of did the trick.”
Madeley added that he was “just so, so relieved” that the infection was only that.
He said, “I just wanted to thank everybody, including my very good friend, the doctor from Surrey, who was literally flying in to take me to hospital and sent a helicopter. It was through her I got to the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
“I just wanted to thank Judy for her support. She’s been with me in the hospital and I can honestly say she’s been a bloody rock to me. I didn’t want her to think I was collapsing under pressure but I was literally clutching a rock in my hand and I think she thought it was down to drugs, I don’t know.”