I’m A Celebrity star Alex Scott has opened up about an unaired health scare that saw her visit the medical tent after discovering a tick in her shoulder
Tom Bryant Associate Editor (Showbiz)
20:19, 29 Nov 2025
Alex Scott. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
Television presenter Alex Scott was compelled to visit the medical tent in footage that ITV chose not to broadcast. She revealed she was left “panicking” after a tick burrowed into her shoulder – with Kelly Brook insisting she seek immediate assistance.
She said: “I was sitting next to Martin after carrying the logs and I felt my shoulder, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big spot that’s come up.’ I asked him to have a look, then Kelly jumps up and says, ‘It’s a tick.’ I was panicking as she was shouting that I needed to get to medical. I knew about ticks and leeches, but I always thought it wouldn’t happen to me. They got it off but no one else has had one.”
She also disclosed that Ginge was troubled by leeches as well in the damp conditions. Alex spoke candidly to the Mirror during an extensive interview.
During the chat, she explained how her spirits plummeted when she discovered Jess Glynne wasn’t there to greet her upon her departure. The former England footballer already understood there was a possibility that her pop star girlfriend wouldn’t be present.
Even before jetting off to Australia, Jess’s mother had experienced a stroke, leaving Alex torn about whether to withdraw from the programme. Ultimately, it was Jess who insisted she must participate, reports the Mirror.
Alex arrives back at the hotel. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
Alex Scott with Tom Bryant after she is first to leave the IAC jungle camp in Australia. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
“It’s been a tough time for us and obviously her family, and it was a tough decision to come into the jungle, but then Jess never wanted me to step away from not doing it,” Alex revealed: “I knew there was always a possibility of her not being across the bridge, if her mum hadn’t got better, or if things had been getting worse, which they have been. But it was a big decision for me to not pass this opportunity, and Jess was the one that pushed me to be here.”
Just hours after Alex departed the jungle, Jess took to social media to explain her absence from the bridge reunion.
In a deeply emotional post, she revealed how her mother had “suffered a major stroke and needed urgent brain surgery.”
She continued: “It’s been a really serious, life-altering time for my family, and I’ve had to stay close to home. Alex would always want me to be where l’m needed most. I can’t wait to have her back by my side.”
When questioned about whether she’d contemplated withdrawing from the programme, Alex confessed: “Oh, yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. But Jess was the one that wanted me to do this, so that’s why I wanted to go in and still make her proud.”
Alex also discussed becoming caught up in one of the camp’s most controversial moments: her covert salt operation.
Alex was the first to leave the IAC jungle this year. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
The camp lost a star after she was caught red-handed smuggling seasoning using crocodile feet. “I felt like such a naughty schoolgirl, like I should have been put in detention or something,” she laughs.
“We had stopped at a service station, and they just had all these little sachets of salt and pepper. I was staring at them for ages, like, ‘Shall I? No… they’ll frisk me.’ But I put them down my socks and didn’t get checked.”
She also discloses that several fellow campmates were aware of her clandestine contraband collection. “Jack knew about it, Ginge saw me one night… he just kept giving me the eye. Shona knew about it from early days,” she confesses.
Regarding who she believes will claim the crown this year, Alex suggests it will likely boil down to the viewers’ darlings. “Personally, I think, from the public and how the trials have been going, it’s going to be Ginge or Aitch between those two. Because of their fan base and how they’ve come across. I’d love for Shona to win, that would be a beautiful story. But I think it’ll be between one of the boys.”
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