I’m A Celebrity: Cerys Matthews

38 year old rock star Cerys Matthews says she can’t wait to get into the jungle for a ‘crazy and confused time’ and is hoping to find a hunky Tarzan waiting for her.

She’s also refusing to do any trials that involve touching snakes, she’s petrified of heights, and says she will be annoyed and short-tempered with anyone who keeps her awake at night.

And, Cerys says she may irritate her fellow celebs with her constant singing and her dream contestant to meet would be Elvis.

She says: “I’m kind of trying to think that I’ll be like Jane in the jungle. But I’m looking for Tarzan. My Tarzan.

“I’m trying to think of myself as Jane, wearing those outfits, and I want to climb trees and go adventure around. I’m not sure how much of that I’ll be allowed to do but that’s what I want to do. Go and knock on some bark and see what kind of juices come out. And look for fruit.

“It’s a curious place to go looking for love isn’t it, in the jungle? If Tarzan should come down on a vine and come into the camp, it would depend on what kind of things Tarzan likes to talk about, what kind of sense of humour he’s got. It won’t mean that much if he just looks like Tarzan. I’d have to find out what Tarzan’s like.

“I just want to have fun. I want to have a crazy, confused fun few days or weeks. I’m energetic. I change my mind a lot, I’m definitely indecisive. I love life, I’m happy go lucky, and curious.

“If I had to be an animal in the jungle I’d be a kangaroo, a mama kangaroo. They keep their things in their pouch.”

Cerys says her biggest fear is not being able to do what she wants to do – but she is also terrified of practically everything she will encounter – especially snakes and heights.

She says: “My biggest fear is not being able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it. My fear is living without all the things I’ve got used to living with like TV and radio and heating or warm water, everything. I’m worried about having to cope without everything that I’m used to and getting hungry. I definitely don’t like being hungry, I hate being hungry and I’m always hungry. I’m hungry even now and there’s food available.

“I find if I’m really hungry I just can’t concentrate, so if anyone starts to talk to me I’m just not going to be able to follow what they’re saying cos I’m only thinking about steak and potatoes and bread and butter and gorgeous food like that. I might be mean if I don’t get the food.

“But the whole point of doing this is to be faced with the unknown and I have no idea how I’m going to react when I’m faced with a bowl full of grubs and feel obliged to eat them for the team’s sake.

“This is exactly the reason why I’m doing this, because it is a bit mad. I don’t know what the hell I’m letting myself in for. But I don’t think I’m going to regret it. When I’m old and weary and lying there in bed I don’t think you regret doing things, I think you would regret not doing things. So that’s definitely why I’m here today.

“I’m the kind of person who’s very curious and I like to keep learning so this is another big chunk of education in the strangest way. I usually enjoy a challenge but I don’t know how enjoyable Bushtucker trials are going to be.

“It’s the only kind of reality show that I’m attracted to because it’s so crazy. It’s just so not something that I would normally do and it’s just not something that you get the chance to do in your normal life, to be faced with your greatest fears, to feel obliged to try them, your pride makes you obliged to try them because you’re there. But because people are hungry and you’re hungry then you’re going to have to try and do it and so I’m incredibly curious to know what that feels like.

“I don’t like bugs, I don’t like maggots, I don’t like heights, and I don’t like snakes. And
I can’t stand flying. I try my best to avoid flying. I hate heights. I can barely walk along the cliffs where I live. I have to look away from the edge when my dogs are running along. So you know it, it’s something that petrifies me. But then I just feel like I’m at the point in my life where I just want to push it a bit.

“The only thing that I would absolutely refuse to do is to get too close to a snake. Apart from that I’m up for anything. If I’m really hungry, and I know everybody else is really hungry, then the food becomes a priority.

“The difficult thing is I absolutely hate the idea of snakes getting anywhere near me, so it’s impossible to say, you know. Can you hypnotise yourself to just not be there or something while these snakes are crawling all over you? I don’t know. I’ve never touched a snake. It’s their eyes. The dead eyes that just stare at you and this tongue that goes in and out. And they smell you and they sense that you’re there, because they can’t actually see very well can they? But they sense you’re there. And it’s the idea that they can crawl into gaps and orifices and things. I don’t like that.”

Cerys says her main skills that may help her are fishing, getting on with people, cooking and tidying.

She says: “I love fishing. I love boats. I don’t catch many fish though, I’m just a learner.

“I get on quite well with people so I’ll be excited to meet everybody, I’m sure there’ll be some quite strange people there by nature of the show.

“I’m a really good cook, so it’ll be interesting to see if I can cook in the camp. It’s not like there’s going to be any sauces there. I like to improvise when I’m cooking so I’ll be quite interested to see what we can do with what we’ve got.

“I’m quite neat if I’ve got time. If I’m working then my house is crazy, chaotic, it’s a mess but if I‘ve got time I like things in order. I definitely do like things tidy. I like to be able to find things in the right place. So if I’ve got too much time I might become obsessed.

“What happens when you’ve got too much time on your hands? I don’t know. When do you ever have that much time on your hands without anything else to do? No paper, no pen, no telly, no radio, no kids. I’ll start lining up the leaves from the trees.”

The singer says she doesn’t like people who are rude and arrogant and says a few things will make her snap and lose her temper.

She says: “I am terrible with authority. I got the chip in my brain when I was born that whatever somebody tells me to do, I have to try and do the opposite. That’s been the story of my life. So with authority I just turn into some rebellious teenager every time.

“My reactions to a leader will always depend on how efficient that leader is. I mean, if they’re a fantastic leader that would be ace wouldn’t it? And I would definitely be like a disciple. But if the leader chooses to do things that I don’t think are reasonable or sensible then I might have to rebel.

“If I don’t agree with somebody’s leadership I might either sulk for a while or I might just go and confront that person or try to do it in a diplomatic way. I think that that might be the right answer.

“I hope I’m pretty tolerant of most kinds of people. What I find difficult is that if I need to be quiet and if somebody just defines themselves by talking all of the time, that gets very difficult.
I find it difficult when somebody is an incessant talker, so talking, talking, talking and no breath. I find it very difficult. I’m going to try to be very tolerant but I find that difficult.

“I think if somebody’s intolerant to me or somebody else, if somebody’s outwardly rude and arrogant I find that very difficult to put up with. I don’t like rudeness much. I think people ought to be nice to each other. I think that’s the best form of religion is to love each other and be sweet.

“I’m also really scared that people are going to be really noisy in the night. Making like coughing noises or snoring, or just fidgeting, talking, or laughing all the time. That kind of thing can get annoying sometimes. I’m a very light sleeper.

“And that kind of scares me because the hours are going to be long just lying there if you can’t sleep through it in the night, with all those noises. I think I would probably deal with it pretty badly. I hope they’ll give me some ear plugs. I think I’ve found in the past if you turn somebody onto their fronts, that that helps the snoring. But then they turn on their backs again.

“There are going to be a few factors that are going to make me snap. It’s going to be tiredness, hunger, boredom and frustration. Those kinds of things would probably make me a lot more short tempered than I am usually. But I’m generally quite a strong person you know. I bounce back quite a lot. I don’t like to let life get you down.“

Cerys says she may annoy the other campers by humming and singing and asking a lot of questions.

She says: “I’m quite a fidget and I hum quite a lot and sing all the time. That could get incredibly annoying couldn’t it?

“I like to ask a lot of questions. At least I’d like to get to know the camp and the surrounds and the trees. I’d like to be an adventurer in the camp if you’re allowed to do adventure. I’ve been doing a boot camp to get a bit fitter – to be prepared against the odds.”

Cerys said she’s also been prepared for the jungle noises by the time she spent living in a shack in Tennessee.

She says: “I lived in a place where there was no running water and no electricity. It wasn’t like I was miles away but it made me get used to darkness a bit. And the insects in Tennessee are pretty loud and in the jungle they’re pretty loud.”

Cerys says what she will miss more than anything are her children, four-year-old Glenys Pearl and two-year-old Johnny.

She says: “Glenys wants to come with me but she doesn’t like bugs much so that’s why we tell her she can’t come.

“I’m mostly going to miss my kids because they’re still very young. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with them as they’ve been growing up so I feel that this is a good time to do this.”