The I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here stars might be deprived of good meals and general dignity, but don’t you dare take their ciggies.
It turns out the celebrities in the South African jungle, which this year includes Shane Warne, Brendan Fevola, Anthony Callea, Akmal Saleh and more, have been granted permission to smoke their blues away off camera.
According to News Corp, Channel Ten “reluctantly” admitted that they were allowing contestants to light up. “We will not comment on individuals. But, yes, some people are smoking, as they do in the UK version of the show,” a spokesperson for the channel revealed.
Warne, Fevola and Callea are all smokers while ex-The Bachelor contestant Laurina Fleure has been spotted smoking on occasion in Melbourne, as per the News Corp report. Warne has been vocal about his addiction from the beginning, revealing that he would go “cold turkey” before entering camp.
“Ciggies will be very tough,” the cricketer explained in an interview with News Corp. “To give up there’s going to be a lot of phlegm and a lot of stuff coming up so hopefully there’s a spit bucket or something like that. That’s going to be really hard for me because I am a heavy smoker.” The father-of-three continued, “As well as no food, no sleep and no smokes, I could be grumpy. I’m going to give myself a muzzle.”
According to the Channel Ten spokesperson, the program has taken measures to help the celebs quit the habit. “We are encouraging them to quit and assisting them in any way we can, but it is an individual’s decision. Smoking is an addiction,” they said.
“Although celebrities were encouraged to and tried to quit before heading into the jungle, some have struggled more than others. We have a fulltime psychologist to help with quitting and we offer nicotine patches to help with cravings.”
If you think this is a loophole to the slumming-it-out journey, it was also revealed last month that Warne’s contract excused him from eating spiders, which he’s super scared of.
Would you like some struggle with your experience, mate?