I’m A Celebrity: Gemma Atkinson

Jungle beauty Gemma Atkinson may spend time looking gorgeous in the I’m A Celebrity jungle camp, but she has a rather unattractive habit that may irritate her campmates – snoring.

She says: “I’m worried about sleeping on camera - I sleepwalk and talk and I’m a big snorer, so that might be embarrassing. My whole family are bad snorers.

“I have an abnormal sleeping pattern. We had a baby-gate until I was quite an old age at home because I sleep walk and I speak a lot in my sleep. I have very bad dream patterns and twitching eyes and stuff, and it’s something I’ve had since I was a child. I’ve crawled into my wardrobe before and found myself at the top of the stairs. I think it’s because I have so much energy from being so active during the day.

“So I’m just hoping I don’t do anything or, you know, get in bed with anybody when I’m asleep. I’ll maybe go swimming when I’m asleep ‘cos you can do all sorts can’t you? I’ve had it since I was like really young, but it’s something that has stuck with me and I’ve just got to deal with it.

“I’ve mistakenly once nearly had a wee in my wardrobe but I’ve been woken up by one of my friends. But we had had a heavy night drinking so maybe I was still a bit drunk. I’m just crossing my fingers.

“My mum’s found me downstairs making a cup of tea. She’s found me in my wardrobe. She’s found me at the top of the stairs. And luckily I’ve been woken up by my mum saying, ‘Gemma what are you doing?’, but in there I could be woken up by a bite on the ankle or something. So that is a worry.

“I might sleep tied down so I can’t get up.”

Gemma says the thing she’s looking forward to the most about her time in the jungle is not wearing make-up.

She says: “I’m looking forward to wearing no make up and not having to bother with my hair. Over here everyone expects me to look glamorous all the time because of the job I do, but I’m not glamorous at all unless I have to be. I’m looking forward to being able to just throw on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt.

“I’m a typical northern bird. I’m kind of just quite normal and laid back. I think people presume you have a glamorous, celebrity lifestyle and do this and do that, and it’s completely not. I’m in here most weekends with a chippy dinner, not doing anything glamorous.

“I’m hoping the public will see a different side to me. They’ll see a genuine, more normal side to me as opposed to my glamorous posing semi naked side. They’ll probably see that I’m very different to how I come across in the lad’s magazines and papers. They’ll see that I’m very much one of the lads. Unless I’m working I never wear dresses and make up. That’s why my job for me is so fun because it’s the complete opposite to what I am.

“When I finish work I can switch off, get my pyjamas on, scrub my face and not have to worry about it. I love having days when you don’t have to make an effort. A few of the lads might be a bit disappointed when they see me with no makeup on and not airbrushed. They might think, ‘hmmm, she’s not actually that fit’, but I’m just going to try and be myself in there, hopefully make a few friends and just enjoy the experience.

“I hope the other contestants will see that I’m not a no–brain girl with fake boobs and that I’m ballsy and game for a laugh.”

Gemma says she hopes to be able to do well in the trials, although she hates snakes and anything with a long neck.

She says: “I think it’ll be okay. Everyone keeps saying that I’ll really struggle, but they forget that I’ll be starving and the thought of doing something horrible for ten minutes to get a nice meal afterwards won’t be too bad – its mind over matter.

“I’m not a big snake person at all. I’ve got a phobia. I get the mick taken out of me all the time. I’ve got a phobia of things with long necks like giraffes, ostriches, emus, swans. The whole neck. I don’t like the neck on them. It’s kind of a bizarre thing I’ve had since, you know, a child.

“I saw a spider in my mum’s house a few days before entering the jungle and my mum said to me, ‘Hey Gem, come and get this spider. See if you can do it.’ I was like, ‘of course I can do it,’ and I couldn’t do it. I was fine until I touched it. And it was so quick. So the bug thing might be a problem.

“But I’d just eaten my tea when I saw that spider. If I’m starving it might be a different scenario.

“Snakes are the biggest problem for me. I don’t like the fact they haven’t got legs and they move that quick – it’s just wrong. Rats I’m not bothered about. I was one of those kids who had lots of gerbils and hamsters, and I always wanted rats but my mum wouldn’t let me, so I’m not bothered about rats.

“But I’ve held one snake before and I was a mess for about an hour afterwards. So I’ll probably struggle with snakes I think.”

Gemma says she’s looking forward to the way she’ll be dropped into the jungle and doing a bit of team work once she gets in there.

She says: “I’m looking forward to the hike into the jungle. In past series they’ve come out of planes or bungee jumped in so I’d like a good adrenalin rush.

“I did a three-person bungee jump in Blackpool. I’ve also been on all the rides in Blackpool so I’m not too scared of heights. I used to do a lot of hiking and rock climbing so I’m quite outdoorsy.

“I want to overcome my phobias and I think it’ll be great to know that I’ve done it, that I’ve lived rough in the jungle with little food, little sleep and with total strangers and no contact with family or friends.

“I think life in the jungle is going to be a mixture of happy times, stressful times, starving times. Probably for me a bit impatient because I’m kind of like, I want to get things done. But it’s going to be an experience that I’m going to take away with me. And I know for a fact before going into it that I won’t regret it. And I’m not often like that - I always go into something with a doubt of will I or won’t I enjoy it. But with this I know I will enjoy it overall.

“I’m quite good at team work and I was really good at sport at school. I’m not much of an organiser, I think I’ll leave that to someone older and wiser, but I don’t want to sit around doing nothing – I want to muck in as best I can.

“I think if something’s going to be done, the more hands the better it’s going to be done. I’m also quite a good listener. You know, if my friends have got problems they all come to me and speak to me about it.”

Gemma says she hopes the other campers will like her and she hopes after surviving in the jungle she will learn to appreciate life more.

She says: “When you’re in the public eye you go to photo shoots and are briefed beforehand, so you can’t always be yourself, but in the jungle I’ll be able to be myself and hopefully people will like me. I’m optimistic, down to earth and a happy person but sometimes scatty.

“I’m a bit worried that my humour won’t come across very well. I have a dry sense of humour so I hope people don’t take me the wrong way. I might be one of the younger people in there so I’m hoping there’ll be someone who can play mum to me.

“I’m not very domesticated in terms of cooking and cleaning. I don’t think I’ll be a leader, I wouldn’t want the responsibility, but I’ll try to muck in. I don’t mind being asked to do something, but I don’t like it when someone tells you what to do and is rude with it. There will be people in there who have more experience than me and have more credibility professionally but at the end of the day we should all be treated the same. I’m hoping there will be no-one looking down on anyone else and we’ll all be treated as equals.

“It’s a worry for me because there’s going to be people in there who’ve got far more experience profession wise and world wise than me and I don’t want them to judge me on that and look down on me. I don’t want them to say, ‘well I’m a politician’ and ‘I’m an actor’ and ‘I’m a presenter’ and me say, ‘Well I do modelling’, you know and them to say, ‘well you’re not fit to be in here then’.

“I think it will be a wake up call for me. I take a lot of things for granted, like my house and the fact that I can go buy clothes and food. In the jungle I’ll be without clothes, food, hair products. So when I come home, I’ll probably think twice about my bed being uncomfortable or not liking a meal in a restaurant. Hopefully I won’t moan as much.”

Gemma says the thing she will miss most about being in the jungle is her birthday celebrations as she turns 23 while she’s out in Australia.

She says: “I’d have a night out with the girls on the Saturday night and then my mum always puts on a buffet on Sunday with all the family and a big cake. I have a big family and the house is usually packed, so it’ll be difficult for me to be on my own with strangers. I’m going to have a party when I get back.

“The luxury side of things won’t bother me. It’s the fact that I haven’t got friends and family in there. I’m kind of one of those people, if something’s bothering me, I’m on the phone to my mum or my friend or my sister telling them. And the fact I won’t be able to do that, that will get to me I think.

“But I’ve just got to have in the back of my mind that when I come out I’ll see them all and I’ll have more stories than ever to tell them, so I’ve just got to keep that in mind.”