![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765065250_193_0_EMB-Im-a-Celebrity-2025.jpg\")
Lisa Riley opens up for the first time(Image: Tim Merry\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\nLisa Riley opens up to the Mirror about enduring tough times in the jungle and how she overcame them in her first proper chat since leaving the showLisa Riley opens up for the first time(Image: Tim Merry\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
Actress Lisa Riley<\/a> has told how her beloved late mum helped pull her through her darkest moment in the Jungle. The usually bubbly Emmerdale<\/a> star said she felt \u201calone\u201d and \u201cvulnerable\u201d at one stage as she struggled with camp life.<\/p>\n The 49-year-old said at her lowest she took herself the \u201cfarthest away\u201d from the camp by the creek to be by herself. \u201cI sat there on my own, and I had a little word with my mum,\u201d she admits. \u201cI spoke to all my angels up there – I’m so blessed – but especially her. I was like, \u2018mum, I need some strength. I need to get through. I’m struggling, and I am finding things really hard.’<\/p>\n Lisa was incredibly close to her mum Cath and was left devastated when she passed away from cancer in 2012<\/a>. She was just 57. The Emmerdale actress says she struggled in the aftermath of her taking part in the fish gut challenge, calling it the \u201ctoughest time\u201d she faced.<\/p>\n Asked to describe how she felt, she replied: \u201cI felt alone, vulnerable\u2026.the challenge probably takes it out of you, and the feeling that you’ve got to do well, you’ve got to provide.\u201d She said the pressure of everyone doing so well in the trials got to her.<\/p>\n READ MORE: I’m A Celeb Martin Kemp reveals real reason for swerving jungle trials<\/a> \u201cWe were getting hefty numbers. No one got less than six stars. And I’d done really well. I got a mega number. But then you get back and you don’t know what day it is, what time it is, and you just want that reassurance maybe from home to go, ‘You know what, Lisa, you’re doing b***** brilliant.'” She says that her lowest moment was coming back to the camp after the trial.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cWe’d left the camp so quickly that morning, I hadn\u2019t prepared any clean clothes. I had nothing. Everything I had was saturated. So I sat there smelling like a wet fish market nine times over and covered in green stuff in the heat. I was sitting on the bottom step of the Telegraph all on my own. I just wanted time out.\u201d<\/p>\n She says that close pal Ruby Wax <\/a>noticed she was struggling. She said: \u201cRuby went, ‘baby’s lost her smile,’ and for Ruby to see that… I had no smile in me. I was like, ‘This is really hard. This is really, really hard.’ And then what I did was I literally took myself down to the furthest part of the creek where they collect wood from. I thought, “I just stink. There was no option B.”<\/p>\n The actress said that her campmates helped her through her pain. She added: \u201c In the toughest times, I was always the one to make people feel better. But Martin was there, Jack was there for me, Ruby… the boys, I mean, those lads. I’m old enough to be their mum, right? Those boys, I have been there as a sister figure, a mother figure, call it whatever you want, but for the boys to be so instinctive that day especially, and they were like… I could see it around camp, everyone going, “Lisa’s low.” My balloon popped.\u201d<\/p>\n Thankfully, Lisa was able to turn things round, and she said that her experience of the show was \u201ceverything I wanted it to be and so much more.\u201d Not only did she enjoy the experience more than Strictly, Lisa even managed to shed 20lbs in camp, which she says was a combination of \u201cportion control\u201d and exercise.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you’re in there, people don’t have an idea of the lifestyle, the geography of the camp. It’s the do-ability, the activeness,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, when you go up to the Telegraph to talk, it\u2019s step after step. When you go to a challenge, you never stop moving. It’s endless. It’s not just sat around a campfire having loads of giggles.\u201d She also opened up about her admission in camp that she thought Ant McPartlin<\/a> was \u201cjuicy\u201d.<\/p>\n Lisa laughed: \u201cAny red-blooded woman would say Ant is juicy, and he looks really well. But I\u2019m in a very, very, very happy relationship, I could not be happier. But you know, as I always say, you can go to Waitrose<\/a>, you don’t have to buy anything.\u201d Asked if there were any blushes when she saw Ant in camp, she added: \u201cI wouldn’t say blushes. Listen, I’m a flirt. I flirt with everybody. That’s who I am. I’m not going to stop. I’m a flirt, and I’m so secure in my relationship I can flirt with everybody, but I know who I go home to every night and who loves me and who I love.\u201d<\/p>\n That man is long-term fiance Al, who she has been with for 12-years. \u201cWe know where our bread\u2019s buttered with each other,\u201d she adds. \u201cAl knows fully well what he’s got in me. I’m not shy. I’m very forward-coming. I love a laugh, and I’m a flirt, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2_EMB-Im-a-Celebrity-2025.jpg\")
Jungle sensation Lisa Riley(Image: Tim Merry\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_Im-a-Celebrity-Get-Me-Out-of-Here-TV-show-Series-25-Show-11-Australia-26-Nov-2025.jpg\")
Lisa Riley struggled after the trial(Image: James Gourley\/ITV\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765065252_842_2_EMB-Im-a-Celebrity-2025.jpg\")
Lisa Riley with Mirrorman Tom(Image: Tim Merry\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n