I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 2019 runner-up Yvie Jones has had her every move broadcast to Australia over the last few weeks, yet in an ironic twist of fate the moment she truly ‘broke” was not captured on camera.

The former Gogglebox star was last night announced as the runner-up in the Network Ten program, narrowly missing out on the jungle crown to entertainment reporter and TV personality Richard Reid.

However, despite not taking out the main title the loveable Yvie still managed to create the most important and talked about moment of the show’s season.

During the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! weigh-in challenge, where the celebrities in question are publicly weighed so viewers can marvel at the drastic amount of weight they had lost since toughing it out in the jungle, Yvie refused to take part.

Instead, she said: “I wish we lived in a different world where what we look like doesn’t matter. You don’t know what its like to go through life and be judged solely on the weight that you are, or the clothes that don’t fit you properly. I’m going to respectfully ask that my number is taken away, and that I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost, because I don’t think it really matters.”

The scene quickly went viral and triggered an outpouring of emotion from fans of the series, but while her bravery was being celebrated across Australia Yvie was still deep in the jungle believing the scene had not even made it to air.

“I completely forgot that the weigh-in was a thing, and to be honest I did not think I would get that far in the competition,” Yvie told Mamamia. “It came as a shock when we arrived and I saw the scales were there.  I really did try to bite my tongue but my tears would just not stop. I just looked at [fellow Gogglebox star] Angie and she said ‘are you OK’ and I just said really softy back to her ‘I didn’t sign up for The Biggest Loser‘.

“We had to go do the one-on-one with the camera and I just thought to myself I just have to speak my truth. It was right at the moment when we were doing the weigh-in that this really loud voice in my head just told me that I had to do it.

“I honestly did not think they would even show that moment, I had no idea people had seen it until my brother arrived at the camp. I just wanted to affect the people who were standing in front of me but also, I thought ‘I’ve ruined their segment’ but it turned out to be one of the largest parts of the program and I’m just so honoured to be a part of it.”

Watch the powerful moment Yvie stopped the weigh in on I’m a Celebrity. 

While walking back to camp after the weigh-in Yvie said she felt “lighter than air” and was beautifully supported by her fellow contestants.

Right up until the moment when her fellow campmate, model Justin Lacko, cornered her to say that during her weigh-in speech she hadn’t been inclusive of his feelings.

“I just wanted to talk to you. My heart went out to you and I started tearing up for you but when you said ‘people who don’t have weight issues they don’t understand’ I didn’t really get that,” he told her.

“I didn’t expect that reaction at all… although it also didn’t surprise me,” Yvie told Mamamia. “Justin does make a lot of things about himself, so internally I was rolling my eyes at him. But he was also being very genuine and something was bothering him so he let me know about it.

“But I didn’t want to carry with me what he was saying and so I just let him know in no uncertain terms that his thoughts on this were something that he needed to deal with. He seemed fine about it and I think he really learned something from being in there.”

While Yvie came across as incredibly strong on I’m a Celebrity, she said there was one moment where she felt that she could not continue the competition, and so she simply walked out of the camp.

“About halfway through the show, I had a cold sore on my lip and I was extremely fatigued,” she said. “I felt so sick, I was just really frightened that I was getting really ill. I wanted to talk to the producers about it but they just said ‘you’re doing fine’.

“I felt a bit dismissed and so I walked out, I actually walked out of the compound and I had not told anyone I was going. I took my microphone off, took the batteries out and took my shoes off and just sat down and cried. I’m not sure how long I stayed out there but everyone was looking for me. I was actually hiding behind this barrel so no one could see me.

“But then I put my shoes back on, put my microphone back together and I went back into camp because I really just turned a corner.

“At the time, the only thing that helped me through was thinking ‘what would Jennifer Howard do?’ And Jennifer Howard is the woman that started the charity Safe Pets Safe Families, that I chose to support. I just thought to myself ‘who do you think you are?’

“What I was going through was nothing compared to what some people go through, especially in domestic violence situations. It was like a switch just flipped and I was able to enjoy it. I couldn’t talk to anybody about it and there was nothing they could show on TV because I was off camera when I did it, I was a bit sneaky.”

Unbeknown to Yvie, the other reason her name was in the headlines while she was in the jungle had to do with the fact that the team behind her original TV project, the popular TV series Gogglebox, were unhappy that she and castmate Angie Kent were appearing on the program.

“You will not see a review of them on Gogglebox,” Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television Brian Walsh told TV Tonight when I’m a Celebrity first aired. “From a promotional point of view, the issue that upsets Foxtel is the exploitation of the Gogglebox brand to market and sell another program.”

“That [the Foxtel comments] came to my attention once I got out of the jungle and I was just incredibly disappointed by it,” she said.

“We were so looking forward to the Goggleboxers and our friends watching us on the show. When we got out and heard that they had been told they were not allowed to contact us or review us for the show I was just heartbroken.

“I have found out since then that the audience has spoken and there has been a bit of backtracking. They will be reviewing us.”

Even if she didn’t walk away with the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! crown, Yvie is still a queen to us.

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