As Kelly Brook enters the I'm A Celebrity jungle, a years-old feud with television royalty Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly has been spectacularly reignited, with Piers Morgan gleefully fanning the flames.
The model and presenter's inclusion in the 2025 line-up has resurfaced rumours of her past awkward run-ins with the beloved Geordie hosts. Brook has previously claimed she was frozen out of television work after 'upsetting' the duo.
The Social Media Spark
Never one to miss a drama, outspoken talk show host Piers Morgan has now thrown his hat into the ring. Having worked with both parties during Brook's brief tenure on Britain's Got Talent, Morgan took to X to share his version of events.
He posted a throwback picture of himself with an arm around both Kelly Brook and Ant McPartlin, taken at the show's launch in 2009. This was just days before Brook was axed from the judging panel after a mere two days.
"As Kelly Brook goes into the I’m A Celebrity jungle, a throwback to when she was a judge on for just two days!" Morgan wrote. "Be interesting to see how she interacts with Ant and Dec given she blames them for it."
Teasing the origins of the fallout, he added a telling detail for his followers: "They weren’t happy when she asked them what they did on the show…"
A Clash of Egos and a Two-Day Stint
The roots of this television drama stretch back to 2009, when Kelly Brook joined the third series of Britain's Got Talent as a fourth judge. She sat alongside Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, and Piers Morgan.
However, her role was unceremoniously cut short after just one week. While it was officially reported that the format was 'too complicated' with four judges, Brook believed the real reason lay elsewhere.
She has publicly stated, "There was nothing I could do in this country after Britain's Got Talent. The people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec and that was it."
In their 2010 autobiography, 'Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story', Ant and Dec openly discussed the tension. Dec recounted the moment things soured, describing how he tried to calm a nervous Brook before the show.
"I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax...'She nodded, then looked at me and said, 'And what do you do on the show?'" Dec wrote, noting that Simon Cowell immediately interjected to ask if she had even seen the programme, to which she replied, "Yeah… well, bits."
Dec admitted, "I don't want to sound like an egomaniac, but the last person who said, 'And what do you do?' was the Queen."
Legacy of a Legendary TV Moment
The incident clearly left a lasting mark. Brook fumed that while Ant and Dec were pleasant to her face, their egos were wounded. "They were saying to themselves 'How dare she think she can come on to our show?'" she claimed.
For their part, the hosts expressed frustration that they hadn't been consulted about her hiring. Dec wrote, "We had two questions: 'Why is there a fourth judge?' and 'Why is it Kelly Brook?' None of them could answer us... Simon, without talking to anyone, had decided it was a good idea. We didn't agree."
When asked for her opinion on their autobiography at the time, Kelly Brook delivered a final, dismissive quip: "As for Ant and Dec, good luck to them. They are rich and they are happy, but they won't be in my autobiography, even if I am in theirs!"
Now, with Brook facing the hosts in the Australian jungle, this piece of television history is back in the spotlight, proving that some showbiz feuds have remarkable longevity.
