Martin Kemp, the former EastEnders actor and Spandau Ballet bassist, has shared an amusing insight into his family’s reactions as he prepares to enter the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! camp. The 64-year-old revealed that when he first told his son Roman—who finished third on the same show in 2019 and now hosts The One Show—about his participation, Roman was “jealous” and quickly began offering advice.
Speaking in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Martin said, “Roman was the first person I asked for advice about whether I should take the job, and he told me to go for it and said he was jealous of me going in. But then he kept trying to give me advice, and I had to tell him to stop. I was like, ‘Just leave it, Roman,’ because if I do well, I know he’ll just claim the win. If I do win, Roman won’t live it down.”
Martin acknowledges his son’s successful stint on the ITV show and believes his own life experience will be beneficial during his time in the jungle. He emphasized his commitment to authenticity, stating, “The last thing I want to do is go in there and be false, I’ve never done that and I don’t want to start now.”
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Roman has also spoken about his father’s participation. He shared how Martin announced the news to the family via a WhatsApp photo of him in the show’s iconic attire, although producers have made Martin promise to keep his involvement under wraps for now.
Ahead of his journey into the jungle, Martin reflected on his excitement in a podcast chat with Roman, saying, “I love doing iconic television, stuff that I’ve been watching for years, and my favourite memory of the show is you being in it in 2019.” He added a personal touch, recalling, “When I went to a fitting the other day and I was trying on jungle clothes, I almost felt like I was putting on your clothes. I thought, ‘I bet Roman had these on,’ but it’s really exciting.”
Roman advised his dad on managing downtime during the show, explaining that contestants often rely on chatting and taking part in trials to keep boredom at bay. “The boredom’s hard and you want trials. I don’t understand people who go in there and they don’t want a trial; you want trials,” Roman said. He also warned Martin about the infamous dishes served on the show, such as crocodile feet and eels.
In response, Martin reminisced about his childhood experience with eels: “I used to eat eel when I was a kid, jellied eels. My nan used to have eels. I remember once when I was a kid, I walked up to her kitchen counter, I looked in the sink, I put my hand in and all these eels went [mimes snapping]. She bought them home from the market and then boiled them.”
As the Kemp family gear up for their jungle adventures, fans can look forward to a genuine and entertaining presence from Martin, who comes well-prepared and with solid family support.