I’m A Celeb crowns a 2022 winner

Former Recovery and Triple J host Lewis, 48, admitted he was nervous signing up for the show, asking: “What if nobody remembers that guy from the 90s?”

Lewis had an at-times emotional season, facing his fear of snakes during one terrifying challenge and becoming emotional when he opened up about the pain of losing his younger brother Quinn to suicide in 2007. His chosen charity for the season was Lifeline.

Six contestants remained in the ‘jungle’ for Sunday night’s finale, eliminated one by one: UK reality star Joey Essex finished in sixth place, with the show’s first non-celeb contestant David finishing fifth and swimmer Emily Seebohm placing fourth. Retired AFL great Nathan Buckley placed third.

Lewis joins previous winners including last year’s Queen of the Jungle Abbie Chatfield, 2020’s winner Miguel Maestre and 2019’s Richard Reid.

Earlier this season, fellow contestant Beau Ryan exposed several behind the scenes secrets from the show after becoming the first person this year to utter the words: “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”

The season filmed last September, but the wounds were clearly still fresh for rugby league footballer turned TV host Ryan, who had little positive to say about his experience in a series of candid radio interviews after quitting the show.

Ryan said he “hated” his time on I’m A Celeb and would never do it again, describing it as “trauma.”

He also revealed that he snuck an iPhone into camp and gave the show’s producers an ultimatum once he started to get hungry – provide more food or he’d walk out.

One possible reason for the bad mood: Ryan also revealed that, given he quit I’m A Celeb rather than get eliminated from the competition, he’d have $200,000 docked from the pay he was receiving to appear on the show. That’s a giant pay cut considering he confirmed he was less than five days from the end of filming when he made the decision to walk.

Originally published as New I’m A Celeb winner crowned in live finale