John Edward opens up about his controversial appearance on ‘I’m a Celeb’

THE psychic medium has set the record straight about what really happened when he met Paul Burrell on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

PSYCHIC medium John Edward says he would never have agreed to appear on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! if he had known Princess Diana’s former butler was one of the contestants.

Edward’s appearance on the show [which was edited down to two five-minute segments] made headlines around the world when he seemingly made contact with Princess Diana and passed on some messages from her to a stunned Paul Burrell.

But the psychic medium, who is touring Australia in October/November, told news.com.au that he thought the person coming through was actually a male.

In the episode that screened, Edwards never specifically refers to Diana but the way the footage is cut led viewers to believe the person making contact was the late Princess.

“I have no idea what was shown,” he said about his appearance on I’m a Celeb. “I’ve seen nothing. The producer in me would probably get angry if I saw what was shown as opposed to what actually took place or happened.

“If anybody goes back and watches that, I use the word ‘he’ for the person that was coming through,” he said.

“Energetically I felt that his friend [who came through] was like a business partner. If you had interviewed me after that and said who do you think this is, I would have said his business partner. I wouldn’t have been like, oh there’s a royal connection or whatever. There was more stuff that came out around him that had to do with his family too. I don’t know what they aired.”

Edward had no idea who any of the celebrities were before appearing on the show and he said when he finished the group reading producers explained to him that Paul Burrell used to work for Princess Diana.

“When they told me who it was I was like ‘s**t!’ And they were like, ‘why?’ I was like, ‘because that’s like sitting down with Yoko Ono, you would expect John Lennon to come through. It’s like sitting down with a Jackson, you’d expect Michael to come through.’

“That would be a no for me. If somebody asked me to do that, that would have been a flat out absolutely not. And definitely not on camera.”

Has John Edward turned our Royal Butler into a psychic believer? #ImACelebrityAU pic.twitter.com/e8uWKvnD9j

— #ImACelebrityAU (@ImACelebrityAU) February 28, 2018

Edward told news.com.au he doesn’t regret his appearance on the show because he didn’t know in advance Burrell was going to be on it. But he did add that he’s not a fan of reality TV and won’t be appearing on a show such as I’m a Celeb again in the future.

“That was a one shot deal,” he said. “That’s not a me thing.”

So why did Edward, who intensely dislikes doing celebrity readings, agree to appear on the show in the first place?

“OK so that was crazy,” he said. “I’m in South Africa [in late 2017] and I hadn’t been there for two years. I have a friend that’s there and she said, ‘promise me you’re not going to wait two years to come back.’ And I went, ‘it won’t be two years, I’ll see you in March … they [spirits] just told me I’m going to see you in March.’

“I remember thinking, ‘why am I coming back here in March?’ Then when I got the phone call to do it [I’m a Celeb] I thought, ‘I don’t think that this is for me, it’s not my thing’.”

But the producers of the reality show were desperate and called back again and gave Edward more details.

“I was very polite and said, ‘I don’t think this is for me’ … And he told me it would be in March [in South Africa] so when that happened, I took it as I’m supposed to do this! If I hadn’t got that message ahead of time, I wouldn’t have done it.

“I also knew that I wouldn’t know the celebrities,” he added.

Edward, 48, will be touring Australis later this year and if you want a taste of what his live shows are like you can check out some episodes of The Psychic John Edward which you can watch on Facebook.

John Edward returns to Australia for national tour in October/November:

Sydney: State Theatre, Thursday October 25

Newcastle: Tuesday October 30

Adelaide: Norwood Concert Hall, Thursday November 1

Perth: Riverside Theatre, Sunday November 3

Canberra: Canberra Theatre, Tuesday November 6

Melbourne: Hamer Hall, Thursday November 8

Brisbane: Sleeman Sports Complex Chandler Theatre, Saturday November 10

Townsville: Monday November 12

Cairns: Pullman Reef Casino, Tuesday November 13

Ticket information available on John Edward’s website