I threatened to walk out of the I’m A Celeb jungle four times… and went on strike over clean socks, says Boy George
BOY GEORGE has told how he threatened to quit I’m A Celebrity FOUR times as the emotional challenges of being in the jungle took their toll.
On one occasion the 61-year-old Culture Club star took off his mic and went on STRIKE after the crew refused to supply him with clean socks.
He also COMPLAINED to bosses after a week of having to drink smoke-infused water — which he compared to torture — eventually forcing them to fit a filter.
He tried to incite the camp to MUTINY in mock fury after they lost out on chocolate in one of the challenges.
And his most dramatic MELTDOWN — over a refused request for a ride in a golf buggy — saw him lock himself in a shed before breaking down in tears.
George claims he is still amazed he managed to stop himself “doing a Gemma Collins” — marching out of the jungle camp after just a few days, as The GC did in 2014.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, the pop icon confessed: “I am a bit of a stomper-outer, I spent the whole of the 80s saying I was going to leave Culture Club. My manager calls it my marching, when I start going, ‘That’s it I’m leaving’.
“So I was amazed how I was able to stop myself from doing a Gemma Collins. I can remember watching her quit and thinking, ‘That could be me’.
“The thing is, the jungle is designed to drive you crazy and it works, because everything in there is impossible. So there were times when I said, ‘If this isn’t beneficial to the show, I’m not doing it’.
“That’s what happened in the stand-off with the buggy. Basically Sue Cleaver, who is younger than me, had a buggy back after a trial but they wouldn’t get me one.
“My view is if the cameras are on, the lights are on and it’s beneficial to the show, I’ll trudge over any mountain you like covered in animal entrails. But when the cameras are off . . .
“Sue had her buggy and Ant and Dec have gone off in a lovely Range Rover, and I’m like, ‘OK, now there’s a duty of care issue, there’s no way I’m walking up that hill.
“I’m 61, I’m asthmatic, I’m pulling that card. And there’s no reason for this. Unless you can give me a really good reason why I should walk up that hill, I’m not walking up it’.
“All the crew kept passing the buck, so I just sat in a wheelbarrow, thinking ‘I’ll sunbathe. I’m just going to sit here while they sort this out’.
“Then I thought, ‘They’re not going to get me a buggy’, but it had gone past reason, so I dug my heels in, thinking, ‘No, I’m getting a buggy. If I’m not getting a buggy I’m getting a helicopter’.
“Then I ran into the shed, locked it. This guy from the crew unlocked it. Then I locked it again. Then I started chanting.
“I was laughing a bit, crying a bit, thinking, ‘What is happening?’.
“Then they got me a buggy. And thank God, because it was miles back to the camp.”
Asked how close he was to quitting at the time, George said: “It was close.
“But then once I got in the buggy I was over it and I felt like a total nana. I had to apologise to the security guard later in the car, but he was fine.
“I was very conscious in the jungle that if I behaved a certain way — there were times where I was a bit aggressive and said certain things — I’d always go, ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that’.
“There were times when I didn’t have much sense of humour because I was covered in bugs, someone had taken my hat . . . it’s just relentless in there.
I did have some victories. I got a water filter installed after a week of drinking water that tasted like fire.
Boy George
“So yes, there were moments. I would usually just take off my microphone, put it in the Bushtucker Telegraph cabin and say, ‘Call me when you’ve got my socks’, because it’s unreasonable to not have socks.
“And I did have some victories. I got a water filter installed in the camp after a week of drinking this disgusting water that tasted like wood, like fire.
“I was saying, ‘I’ve had a week of this, it wasn’t in my contract and it’s like torture’. After that they got us electrolytes and put a filter on the pump, so we didn’t have to boil water.
“There was another when we’d lost out on a bit of chocolate in a challenge and I was really hungry that day, so I said to everyone, ‘Let’s have a mutiny. Let’s all take our mics off, let’s go in the cabin and say, give us the chocolate or the show is over’.
“Whenever I tried to do that, no one else was with me.
“I was always on my own until ten minutes later, when they’d say, ‘Oh, I was going to join you . . . ’
“Other people in the camp, particularly the younger people, were much more conscious that they were being watched. At a certain point I was like, ‘I don’t care now’.”
In spite of the challenges, George — who said he was inspired to go on the show by the attitude of American pop artist Andy Warhol — has no regrets about taking part.
He said: “This show is one of the most absurd things you could have ever told me I was going to do, but I said yes after watching a show about Andy Warhol.
“He did everything, even modelling, in his 60s, and I thought to myself, ‘He would have done this show, so I’m going to do it’.
“When I came out, while I was being checked over, I was looking at the screens showing the camp and it was like, ‘Was I even there?’. I’m still processing it.
“You’re in a very extreme environment and no one can prepare you for that, especially if you’re a control freak. But I was amazed we all got on as well as we did.
Andy Warhol did everything and I thought to myself, ‘He would have done this show, so I’m going to do it’.
Boy George
“Different people took different times to break. For Mike Tindall it took a few days and he never really broke but he lightened up a lot and started rapping.
“I wanted him to win because he was the most surprising person — his open-mindedness and warmth — but I kept saying, ‘There’s more to him than we see’.
“We got Diet Mike. He was a nice man, though whether he was completely himself is another story.
“After we came out I met his wife Zara, who was absolutely gorgeous, and I told her, ‘This is usually an insult coming from me, but for you it’s not — you’re very normal’.
“She laughed, she understood what I meant.”
He continued: “It was interesting that, with the exception of Mike, the strongest personalities in the jungle seemed to be voted out the quickest.
“The people in the final were the people who were best able to contain their edges.
“They were definitely the quieter ones, who I had the least conversations with.
I am a bit of a stomper-outer, I spent the whole of the 80s saying I was going to leave Culture Club.
Boy George
“There were all sorts of people in there and it’s so interesting what triggers people. It’s almost impossible to not absorb some of their anxiety, and that can play with your head.
“But there was a lot of kindness in there too.
“I got closer to some people than others, but there’s no one I disliked, no one I wouldn’t talk to.
“It’s obviously early days but we’re chatting. And I’m happy because everything I said and did in there, I addressed. I feel like I did well considering what a reactive person I am.
“I found it all very liberating, weirdly, but the weirdest thing is looking back — after all the anxiety I had about going in — and thinking, ‘I did that, that was me’.”