UK viewers gripped by wild TV clash in Aussie bush on I’m A Celeb

A bizarre confrontation in the latest UK season of I’m A Celeb – now filming in the Aussie bush – has British viewers in a frenzy.

A bizarre one-sided feud between two contestants on the new UK season of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! has exploded online, with footage of the pair’s showdown being viewed tens of millions of times.

And the public are overwhelmingly siding with one party, amid calls to have the other booted from the show.

Filming in bushland near Murwillumbah, New South Wales, this current 23rd season of the UK series features a new cast of famous – and infamous – UK celebs. Among them, Fred Sirieix, the 51-year-old “maître d’hôtel” from the UK dating series First Dates.

Also in the cast: Nella Rose, 26-year-old YouTube personality and influencer.

The bizarre clash just days into the season was sparked when Sirieix and other contestants prepared the evening meal by campfire. Sirieix noted that he couldn’t see very well without his glasses, explaining to Rose: “My eyesight’s not good. I’m not 26 anymore, am I? I could be your dad.”

I'm A Celeb Uk here

“No, my dad was way older than you,” said Rose.

“Yeah, but I could still be your dad,” he responded.

The next day, Rose – whose father died in 2020, following her mother’s death in 2016 – revealed she’d been stewing on Sirieix’s seemingly innocuous comment overnight.

“Last night Fred made a comment about basically how he could be my dad. I took offence to that because one of the first conversations we had together was me opening up about the fact that my dad’s passed away,” she began.

“I didn’t say anything about it last night. So I slept on it, and I thought about it and I was just like, ‘This is not the kind of person I want to be around.’”

Nella says she "took offence" to the comment.

And true to her word, Rose pointedly ignored Sirieix around camp until he approached her to ask what was wrong.

She told him the remark that had so upset her: “To me, I don’t care how you said it to me, it’s disrespectful and I don’t want to talk to you,” she told him, labelling him a “weirdo.”

“I don’t want to be around you. I only allow people to disrespect me once. You hurt my feelings. I was very upset … you keep trying to speak to me when I don’t want to speak to you.”

Sirieix apologised, saying he was “unaware” she’d felt offended.

Fred pleads his case.

Nella on I'm A Celeb UK.

“I am unaware that what I said would lead to this conversation, I only said that in a way because I am older than you, I am 51 and you’re 26,” he told her.

But Rose was further incensed by his explanation, telling him: “I’m not stupid. You’re not going to ‘little girl’ me, you’re not.”

There was no easy resolution, either, as Rose revealed her intention for the rest of their time living together in close confines at camp: “I would rather stay away from you, I don’t want to eat your food, I don’t want to talk to you. We can just live, you live on that side, I live on this side.”

Footage of the stars’ clash has been viewed more than 40 million times on Twitter, and has sparked an avalanche of cricitism among the show’s viewers – and among sections of Rose’s existing fanbase, who’ve vowed to unfollow her on social media channels.

‘I accept your apology but let’s not be friends, how about that?’ #ImACelebpic.twitter.com/3iVdTs9W13

— I'm A Celebrity... (@imacelebrity) November 21, 2023

Others noted that it was quite the feat to become the season’s most-hated contestant, when far-right politician and TV pundit Nigel Farage is among her campmates.

And the debate over Rose’s reaction has spilled over into other media, with TV pundits weighing in: Loose Women chat show panellist Janet Street Porter said she was Team Nella and found Sirieix’s remarks “incredibly patronising,” while British newspaper columnists also put in their two cents: “Nella Rose’s I’m a Celeb outburst proves Gen Z are too quick to be offended,” The Independent declared.

And Rose herself has revealed that the confrontation may just spell an early end for her time in the “jungle” (aka NSW bushland).

“Whenever I feel uncomfortable, whenever I feel sad, I do tend to leave. I do tend to not carry things through if I feel uncomfortable. So the fact I’ve lasted in the jungle for this long is astonishing,” she told the cameras after the fight.