Kerri-Anne Kennerley reveals her secret I’m A Celeb contract clause

After two years away from TV, Kerri-Anne Kennerley is heading into the jungle – but she has one highly unusual rule written into her contract.

Australian TV legend Kerri-Anne Kennerley is the latest star to be announced as a contestant on this season of I’m A Celeb, in a big ‘get’ for the show that was eight years in the making.

Network Ten’s head of entertainment Stephen Tate had asked Kennerley to appear on the show every season since the show’s inception, leaving her in an enviable position when she did eventually say yes.

I sat down with Kennerley in South Africa the day before she was due to start filming, and she confirmed she accepted an offer she “couldn’t refuse” for her appearance – as well as “a few provisos.”

Such as?

“I get to take makeup,” she reveals. “Natural is very overrated.”

Kerri-Anne Kennerley is heading into the jungle – and she’s bringing her make-up.

Don’t expect full hair and make-up, though: “I can’t be bothered doing that much, but it won’t be natural because natural takes a long time. Every girl knows that.”

Kennerley will enter the jungle the day after the rest of the cast, making her debut on Monday’s episode. Asked if she’s worried her fellow contestants will feel jealous about her being allowed this one creature comfort, she shrugs.

“They should just get better management. Not my problem,” she says with a smile.

The contract stipulation is a small allowance to Kennerley’s public image: In her more than 40 years on Australian television, she’s never been anything less than glamorous.

A glammed-up Kerri-Anne in 2021. Picture: Kai Godeck

She’ll soon trade red carpet events for the African bush. Picture: Getty

But she scoffs at the suggestion she’s too pampered to handle the camp’s long drop toilets, outdoor showers and intense challenges. Rather, she points out her years as a daytime TV host – where the demands to fill hours of airtime necessitate all manner of zany stunts – have been perfect training for a stint on I’m A Celeb.

“I literally have ridden camels, bulls, horses … held snakes including cobras and red-bellied blacks … been bitten by a ferret, been scratched by a lion cub,” she says breezily.

And how about heights? Any issues there?

“I’ve abseiled out of a few choppers. Flying-foxed off the top of (television station) GTV in Melbourne … did that a couple of times.”

Kerri-Anne Kennerley: I’m A Celeb challenge beast?

KAK in 2004: Turns out, 40 years in daytime TV is perfect training for I’m A Celeb. Picture: Channel Nine

The show will mark Kennerley’s TV return after a relatively quiet few years away from screens. She says she doesn’t miss the “five, six-day routine” of daytime TV, and insists she’ll never return to screens in that capacity.

Part of the reason for her slowdown: Several health issues that required lengthy recuperation time. First, her starring role in the musical Pippin came to an abrupt end when she suffered a brutal onstage accident, breaking her collarbone in front of a horrified live audience while performing a risky trapeze stunt.

“I trained so hard to do that, and it was going really, really well until I dropped on my head. Now I’ve got a 12-centimetre plate in my collarbone,” she tells me.

Kerri-Anne’s role in Pippin was cut short after a brutal onstage accident. Picture: David Hooley.

Then came two knee replacements. Kennerley traces the long scars across both of her legs as she details the grisly procedures.

“They hacksaw under your knee, hacksaw the bone off your thigh, cut through all the ligaments and the muscle, then put a new one in, bang and crash it and glue it in and then sew you back up,” she says.

Her doctor isn’t exactly thrilled that her recovery includes a stint on I’m A Celeb, considering her new knees – both fitted last year – are “still setting.”

Before that, came her surprisingly controversial stint as a regular panellist on Studio 10. She appeared on the show for two years, before she was let go in a 2020 shake-up of Ten’s on-air talent.

Her departure came after a string of minor scandals, as Kennerley got into fiery clashes with her fellow panellists on issues like Australia Day and climate change protesters.

A fired-up Kerri-Anne on Studio 10.

Her public image took a battering, but Kennerley insists she’s got no regrets and looks back at her time on the show “with great pride.”

“I think probably it surprised people, because the previous 30 years of television career for me was an interview-based show, but it wasn’t about my opinion,” she says.

“I stepped into a new show that was, the way I understood it, unashamedly about the news and current affairs of the day. As a normal Australian citizen and woman, I actually have opinions, and if people ask me, I’m liable to tell them.”

And all those negative headlines?

“I think it was very good for the show … I thought it worked out really well.”

With the potential for several weeks at camp if she makes it to the end, we may get some more of Kerri-Anne’s strong opinions in the coming weeks.

But she insists she hasn’t really thought about what she’ll talk about on the show – nor how far she might get in the competition.

“My entire career has been spent going, “Okay, I’ve got this job at the moment, let me try and keep it,’” she says of her lack of planning.

“Try and keep this job for as long as you possibly can, and then when that finishes, you go and get another job and you do everything you can to keep it.”

TV judge Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson and MAFS star Domenica are among the other celebs who’ll join Kennerley in the jungle this season, with more to be revealed during tonight’s premiere.

I’m A Celeb premieres 7:30pm tonight on Ten, with Kerri-Anne entering the jungle during Monday’s episode.

Nick Bond travelled to South Africa as a guest of Ten.

Originally published as Kerri-Anne Kennerley reveals her secret I’m A Celeb contract clause