Freddie Flintoff has revealed a clever cheat he used during his time on the Australian version of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2015, which cameras never picked up on. The former cricketer, 47, admitted on his former BBC podcast Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy that he convinced producers he was a smoker to get extra time away from camp.
Flintoff explained that smoking is illegal on Australian television, so producers would walk him to a designated area near the medical tent up to five times a day. He said: 'I just sat on the chair, got a bit of peace to myself, not filmed, nobody's hearing.' He also noticed a water tub in the medical tent and used his breaks to fill his water bottle, ensuring he stayed well hydrated.
'I picked all the putty out the window and took it out. And then filled me bottle five times a day. So I was getting fresh drinking water. I was more hydrated than I've ever been in my life,' he joked. The trick left him drinking less in camp, making him look 'somewhat like a camel' to his fellow campmates.
Flintoff went on to win the series, donating his $100,000 prize to the McGrath Foundation. The revelation comes as the current UK series of I'm A Celebrity continues, with new latecomers Vogue Williams and Tom Read Wilson entering the jungle.
