Why GK Barry is already in line for the I’m a Celeb crown: Podcaster shot to fame making TikToks in her bed room throughout lockdown – and has a ‘lesbian glow’ because of footballer girlfriend

As she jumped up and down and screamed while plunging her hand into a box of cockroaches, GK Barry burst on to screens in typically effusive style as she made her jungle debut last night.

For those who have never heard of the newly-minted I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here star, the podcaster and social media personality, 25, caught viewers’ attention with her over the top reactions.

And it appears she’s been an instant hit because she is already second favourite to win the whole series, just behind McFly’s Danny Jones at 7/2 according to Ladbrokes.

While it’s also highly possible she was responsible for the impressive viewing figures with a massive 82 per cent share of 16-34 year olds choosing to watch I’m A Celeb on Sunday night. 

The star, whose real name is Grace Eleanor Keeling, soared to fame during the first Covid-19 lockdown when she started making TikToks about her daily life while studying film at Nottingham Trent University.

A successful podcast and guest stints on Loose Women have followed, and she’s also kept fans on their toes while documenting her love life. 

The social media personality recently announced that she’s ‘never going back to men’ and celebrated having a ‘lesbian glow’ after embarking on a romance with Ipswich Town player Ella Rutherford. 

Part of why she went viral was a video where she showed off what she really looked like behind the glamour of carefully edited Instagram – and it in sparked a trend of other influencers doing the same.

She shared a video of herself poking fun at how different she looks while dolled up for an Instagram selfie, compared to when she’s relaxing at home in bed.

The video racked up almost 94,000 likes, and social media users from around the world then began replicating the video and using her voiceover to expose how they actually look when posting online.

She soon gained a huge following and within a year, had amassed a whopping one million followers on the video-sharing platform. 

At present, she now has a huge 3.6million followers on TikTok, 61,000 subscribers on YouTube and an impressive 895,000 fans on Instagram.

Cambridge-born Grace went on to create her very on podcast, Saving Grace, in April 2022 and has interviewed numerous celebrities including Coleen Nolan, Olivia Bowen and Alan Carr.

In early 2024, GK took the podcast, which is also uploaded as a vodcast on YouTube, on a sold-out tour around the country.

Since gaining recognition online, GK has made a number of TV appearances and this year was made a regular guest panelist on Loose Women – and made history as the youngest panelist to appear on the show. 

Away from her extremely successful career over the past four years the influencer is dating England football star Ella Rutherford, 24, with the pair thought to have been dating since mid-May after meeting on Instagram.

The romance has been marked by sweet candid photos, proud ‘I love my girlfriend’ shirts and proclamations of love on social media.

Meanwhile, speaking to former Love Island star Anna Vakili on TikTok, she admitted falling for Ella after seeing her profile on the social media platform. 

Grace said: ‘I saw her Instagram and I thought ‘hello!”, saying they then followed each other – and the rest is history.

On her Loose Women appearance in August, Grace said she and the Ipswich Town player had moved in together after their first date. 

She said: ‘First date, she moves in, never left, love that for us!’ She then added that they’d even spoken about having kids by date three. 

In May, Grace revealed that she was in a new relationship but that she would keep it a secret, only calling her by the codename ‘eyelashes’. 

Speaking on her Saving Grace podcast, Grace said: ‘I’m not gonna say who it is, but I’m gonna give her a nickname called eyelashes. So whenever I refer to eyelashes, I am talking about the love of my life.

‘I’m in love. And yeah, it has been three weeks, but that’s fine. That’s absolutely fine. She came to me like a dream, and I was obsessed. I feel like I’ve been missing out. I feel like I went very wrong with men. I don’t like men anymore. I will never go back to a man. God forbid. Yeah, I just love it. I just love it.

‘I feel like I’ve got spring in my step. I feel like I’m glowing. It’s the lesbian glow. I’ve got it. And yeah, that’s my life update.

‘But yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever hard launch though, just because I have been scared off. That been much trauma, many tears, but for now it’s eyelashes and I can’t wait.’

But Grace accidentally ‘hard-launched’ her relationship after a drunken night out in Benidorm, as the two were seen wearing matching ‘I love my girlfriend’ shirts.

Grace joked: ‘I’m sat here on my podcast going ‘you guys will never know who it is’ but I’m rocking around holding her hand with matching ‘I love my girlfriend’ T-shirts. You might as well have just put it on the internet!’ 

Ella then posted a loved-up snap of the two of them, with Grace’s hand touching her face. 

Though only half of Grace’s face could be seen, fans were quick to recognise the beloved podcast host.

Before Ella, Grace – who is bisexual – was in a relationship with a man called Billy Hunt who she met through fellow TikTok star Joe Baggs.

They often posted photos together and went to big events and red carpets but in January Grace shared on her podcast that she was single.

While Grace is well known for her Instagram and TikTok accounts as well as her podcast, she has sparked some controversy amid her short career. 

The blonde beauty was recently slammed by fans as a ‘disgrace to feminism’ after inviting controversial OnlyFans star Bonnie Blue to appear on her podcast.

The social media star has sparked backlash with the episode of her show Saving Grace, after her interview with the racy content creator was released.

Known for her jaw-dropping sex videos, Bonnie won an army of fans when she went on a tour of universities during Freshers Week, aiming to sleep with as many students as possible for free, as long as she could upload the footage to OnlyFans.

Her behaviour has come under fire by many, with some users accusing her of ‘prostitution’ and taking advantage of teens.

Bonnie has also faced huge backlash for her comments in an interview with Cosmopolitan UK, where she stated that while she doesn’t condone cheating, ‘if [men’s] wives aren’t pleasuring them then they will go elsewhere and that’s a fact.’

During Bonnie’s appearance on GK Barry’s show, many fans noted that she wasn’t fully questioned about her behaviour, with the presenter failing to challenge her opinions or reasons.

Fans were quick to make their feelings known in the comments, with some noting that given GK Barry identifies as a feminist, her decision to invite Bonnie on the show was surprising.

Comments included: ‘After having such a nice podcast with louise last week talking about genuine things and now having this on is so disappointing;

‘grace has a problem with never being able to disagree with her guests, never challenging them in any way, she adopts their views. 

‘This can make for great interviewing in some circumstances but agreeing with such outlandish views like this is totally irresponsible. save this talk for the incel podcasts.’

Other fans have also been sharing their fury under posts from other interviews on the Saving Grace TikTok, as there are currently none from Bonnie’s appearance available.

Comments included: ‘Grace, this episode is a disgrace to women and feminism as well as sex workers across the globe;

‘This is such a shame, Grace, not gonna listen to the pod anymore.’

Elsewhere, Grace recently broke her silence about whether she’s really ‘feuding’ with her Loose Women co-star Frankie Bridge as she opened up about breaking into the world of TV.

In August, Loose Women fans accused The Saturdays star Frankie of ‘not liking’ guest panellist Grace after she implied she made a ‘backhanded compliment’ towards her.

However, the influencer has now revealed that the duo ‘were laughing about’ the rumours and the singer was ‘actually really lovely’ to her the entire time she was on the show.

The social media star explained: ‘It is 100% [just people speculating] because we were laughing about it after the last episode that we did because all of the headlines were like: GK Barry and Frankie’s massive feud. 

‘We were completely fine and she was actually really lovely to me when I got there and after the show. It was just a joke with the whole age thing on the panel but I think some people did take it seriously.

‘I love The Saturdays so I would never fall out with Frankie Bridge.’