I’m A Celeb bosses fear Harry Redknapp’s ready to snap as he’s refusing to eat and struggling for energy prompting extra medical checks
I’M A Celeb bosses fear jungle favourite Harry Redknapp may not reach the show’s finale amid growing concerns for his welfare.
The ex-football boss, 71, is refusing food and struggling for energy as the gruelling routine begins to take its toll.
A crew source said: “Harry is the oldest campmate and there are now genuine worries over his health. He is struggling to eat, has lost a lot of weight, and is physically exhausted.
“He is too tired to do much more than sit around the camp. He is uncomfortable physically and is starting to miss home badly. Producers are worried he’s had enough and are closely monitoring his wellbeing.”
Before heading into the Australian bush last month Harry admitted he had never seen the show before and was surprised food was so scarce.
He said: “I’ve got to be honest, I thought there was a caravan round the back here where they were doing bacon sandwiches. There will be an ‘OK, OK time out, let’s all go round and have a coffee, bacon sandwich, sausage sandwich, alright back on set’ but no that ain’t happening is it?”
Harry’s pundit son Jamie, 45, admitted he thought his dad would walk after just five days. He said: “I have to be honest, the fact that he came into it not knowing what to expect was almost quite cute, nobody knew what he was going to be like, I had no idea. I thought, after five days he would’ve walked out. It wouldn’t surprise me. I’d have actually put everything on that more than him sticking it out like he has done.”
Former I’m A Celeb winner Tony Blackburn, 75, who starred in the first series in 2002, told how being in the jungle as an older campmate as “exhausting and draining”.
The radio DJ, who shed a stone and a half during his time in the jungle, said: “It’s a lot harder for campmates who are in their sixties and seventies, you don’t have as much energy and you get more aches and pains. It’s a very tough show to do, exhausting and draining.
“It’s a very unnatural environment, you’re having to get on with people you don’t really know very well. Physically, it’s tough, even getting up in the morning, especially if all your clothes are damp from the rain. It’s a mental game. It’s you against the producers.
“I find it weird that the campmates aren’t given normal food that they can eat, they’re given all this odd kangaroo and emu to cook and Harry doesn’t like that and I don’t blame him.
“They go through absolute hell for it with the Bushtucker trials so they should get proper food. I think Harry should have watched it before he went in though.”
Tony added that he hoped Harry could go the distance. He said: “I would love to see Harry win. But time goes so slowly, what they’re having to do in there is so hard, the trials seem to be taken to the extremes nowadays.”
Meanwhile, evicted campmate Noel, 69, who bonded with Harry on the show, has been trying to communicate with him.
He said: I’ve been channelling daily positivity messages saying, ‘hang on in there mate’.
An ITV spokeswoman said: “All campmates are closely monitored.”