‘I used to be on I’m A Celeb… and that is what I discovered essentially the most tough’ reveals Amy Willerton as she shares her recommendation to Coleen Rooney

I’m A Celeb… has been gripping the nation all week and former contestant Amy Willerton, who placed fifth in her 2013 series, has shared what her time on the show was like. 

The former pageant winner, 32, headed in to the jungle alongside TOWIE‘s Joey Essex, EastEnders Laila Morse and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Alfonso Ribeiro.

And reflecting on her time on the show, the former Miss Universe winner, shared some advice and revealed what she found the most difficult. 

The blonde beauty confessed that living on the meagre rations in the camp proved tough and said that the camp mates get just enough to survive on making her turn quite primal and wanting to kill animals to eat.

Speaking to Platinum Spas she said: ‘You get given a small ration of rice and beans every day but not a big ration, it’s one cup of rice and one cup of beans. 

‘That’s basically enough food to keep you alive so you know you’re not going to die and then anything else is a bonus. The rice and beans become absolutely delicious after a while.’

She went on to say that she found that experience very helpful and it made her more grateful for her life outside the jungle.

Amy added however, that looking back it as a wonderful experience although at the time her and Joey Essex considered killing some of the jungle animals because they were so hungry.  

‘I think it’s a really healthy thing to do (with small rations of food). I’ve never truly been so hungry like that in my life before and it reminds us how lucky we are when you think of countries that don’t have access to food in that way so for me, it taught me a lot,’ she said.

She added: ‘Myself and Joey would make pretend beef burgers, and I wanted to kill animals, so something clearly was getting offset but looking back, I don’t think ‘what an awful thing’ instead I think ‘wow what an incredible thing to experience at such a young age’ because I was only 21.’

She went on to discuss how the meagre portions made her ‘primal’ and she regularly fantasised about killing bushturkeys. 

‘One of my most affinitive moments in the jungle was lying in camp feeling so weak and then a brush turkey walks into camp and I was looking at it planning how I was going to kill it.’ she confessed.

‘I was thinking how will I be able to kill it, cook it, and eat it without people seeing? I’ve never violently killed an animal before so that’s why I’m saying it’s a real return to the primal instinct.’

As she reminisced on her time on the show, Amy shared what she found the hardest and issued some advice for Coleen Rooney. 

The star explained that she found re-adjusting to normal life was the most difficult aspect especially because she wasn’t famous when she went in. 

The beauty explained that although it is normal now to connect with hundred or thousands of people online, she wasn’t used to it at that time and if she could go back she would ask for more time to adjust in to her new life.

She said: ‘I don’t think I integrated fame into my life very well. I was a pageant girl; if I had my sash and crown on then I would get attention and suddenly I couldn’t take it off. 

‘Talking to myself 10 years ago, if I was going through that process, I would want more time to integrate and understand what you want to do with that power.’

Amy also had advice for this year’s biggest star, Coleen, who was reportedly paid at least £1.5 million to appear on the show. 

The star urged the WAG, 38, to reconnect with herself and to try every challenge 

She said: ‘I would just really use the opportunity to connect with yourself and disconnect from everything else. We don’t get a lot of time to unplug.’ 

She went on to say that Coleen should throw herself in to the show because she won’t know when she will get an opportunity like this again. 

‘I would fully embrace it and that was one of the things I said to myself when I went in there, I would do every challenge, I would try my best no matter how scary it was and that was what my intention was. 

‘I wanted to fully enjoy it and commit myself to it and because I made that mental promise to myself, that really pushed me to not chicken out of everything.

Even though there were challenges where you had to dunk yourself in a bowl full of fish guts, get buried with a snake, or eat this, I knew in myself that I had already made the mental decision that I was doing anything I was asked to do. 

‘You get to decide how you will approach the opportunity so I would just say, “are you going to ever put yourself in the jungle in this situation again”‘.

But it seems Coleen is in no need of any advice and seemed completely unbothered about being in the jungle as she was spotted continuing her workout while two possums invaded the camp on Tuesday’s episode. 

The wife of former England player Wayne Rooney seems to be having a better time so far than the beauty queen who revealed she had suffered a meltdown after leaving the show in 2013.  

The then-21-year-old beauty queen said that soap stars Lucy Pargeter and Laila Morse froze her out and talked about her behind her back.

Amy said that she broke down in tears after watching the show when she was evicted from the jungle.

She said that swimming champion Rebecca Adlington sided with Lucy and Laila against her.

Speaking to the Sun at the time, Amy said: ‘Lucy and Laila were having a go at me from the start. They turned on me and ripped me to hell.’

But it seems the star has put that behind her now after she relocated to Ibiza and revealed she has never been happier. 

In 2022 the fitness model admitted she was ‘broken in so many ways’ at the start of the year and jetted off to become herself again.

Taking to Instagram at the time she confessed she had to take drastic measures ot make sure she was happy. 

She said: ‘I asked myself what did I WANT. And like an arrow – Ibiza shot through me. By the end of the song, I had found the apartment I have been living in over summer.

Amy welcomed her first child Demelza in January 2020 with her fiancé at the time Daniel Day.