It may be the first season of the show that’s seen two famous faces voluntarily leave, but former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! winner Brendan Fevola believes the 2018 cast has it “better than ever”.
The former Aussie rules star beat out Paul Harragon, The Bachelor‘s Laurina Fleure, Australian Idol alum Anthony Callea and cricket legend Shane Warne to win the title of ‘King of the Jungle’ back in 2016.
But watching the show this week, the 37-year-old believes his series of contestants had a much tougher time in the South African jungle than the ones currently battling it out in 2018.
@AnthonyCallea how soft is @ImACelebrityAU they are getting fed treats everyday, heaps more food @djhavanabrown @ShaneWarne
— Brendan Fevola (@BrendanFevola25) February 26, 2018
Tagging some of his fellow campmates on Twitter, Fev claimed the current group of celebs – which include Lisa Oldfield, model Simone Holtznagel and Shannon Noll were being fed “treats every day”.
In a cheeky response, Channel 10 said he was more than welcome to “come back in for a guest stint”.
From Anthony Mundine’s comments to Bernard Tomic’s departure and Julia Morris’ insensitive joke – there’s something wrong with the new season of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
“Just say the word,” the broadcaster wrote.
But the 2016 winner said he wouldn’t be re-entering the jungle anytime unless a few ‘conditions’ were met:
???? you can get the King ???? and Queen ???? @CaseyDonovan back in and the Butler and his camp mates have to wait on us ????????????
— Brendan Fevola (@BrendanFevola25) February 26, 2018
By ‘the butler’, Fev was, of course, referring to Paul Burrell, formerly the butler to the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana.
Callea, who placed fourth on Fevola’s season, agreed with the sport star’s statements about this year’s season.
“Said the same thing the other night…” he replied.
"Thankfully though, my goal doing the jungle was to exit looking like Posh Spice and I achieved that."
Fevola - formerly a controversial figure in the Australian sporting world - showed the country his softer side during his time on the reality show, an opportunity missed by Bernard Tomic and Anthony Mundine when they chose to withdraw from the competition.
"We didn't go into the show thinking we were going to get anything out of it, it was just like, 'Go in there and see how you go'," Fevola told The Herald Sun three months after his win.
"It's opened up a whole new chapter, which is amazing."