Lisa Riley confesses she felt ‘alone’ and ‘vulnerable’ during her time in I’m a Celeb jungle
The Emmerdale star shared that her beloved late mum helped her through the darkest times.
18:00, 06 Dec 2025
Lisa Riley became the eighth celebrity to leave the jungle in Friday night’s show.(Image: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock)
Last night, Emmerdale’s Lisa Riley became the eighth celebrity to leave the I’m a Celebrity jungle alongside reality star Jack Osbourne in a shock double eviction. While the actress could be seen as a cheerful and comforting member of camp, Lisa has confessed that she experienced some dark times while in the jungle.
Struggling at times with camp life, the 49-year-old admitted at one stage she felt “alone” and “vulnerable” despite being surrounded by 11 other stars. However, she shared that she was able to bring her bubbly self back thanks to her late mum, Cath.
Since leaving the jungle, Lisa shared that at her lowest point she took herself “farthest away” from camp, which turned out to be the creek. She said: “I sat there on my own, and I had a little word with my mum. I spoke to all my angels up there – I’m so blessed – but especially her.
“I was like, ‘mum, I need some strength. I need to get through. I’m struggling, and I am finding things really hard.” Lisa was very close with her mum and had been devastated when she passed away in 2012, aged only 57.
While Lisa was seen to be a cheerful member of the camp, she confessed that she had some low moments.(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Lisa recalled her “toughest time” in the jungle was after taking part in the gruesome fish gut challenge, reports the Mirror. Describing how she felt in the aftermath, she said: “Alone, vulnerable….the challenge probably takes it out of you, and the feeling that you’ve got to do well, you’ve got to provide.”
With everyone in the camp repeatedly bringing back a high number of stars from the Bushtucker trials, Lisa confessed that the pressure to feed everyone and do as well as the others got to her. She explained: “We 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 went on to explain how her lowest moment came once she returned to the camp after the trial: “We’d left the camp so quickly that morning, I hadn’t 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.”
The Emmerdale star noted that her campmate Ruby Wax had started to notice that she was struggling. She said: “Ruby 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.'”
However, the star was able to find her smile again after her campmates helped her through the pain. Lisa added: “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.”
Lisa met her long-term fiance Al at the end of the bridge.(Image: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock)
While Lisa faced her fair share of struggles while Down Under, she shared that the overall experience of the ITV show was “everything I wanted it to be and so much more”.
Lisa also revealed that she managed to lose 20 pounds while in camp, which she put down to a combination of “portion control” and exercise.
She explained: “When 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. Like, when you go up to the Telegraph to talk, it’s 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.”
Lisa also opened up about her “crush” on host Ant McPartlin, still standing by her claim that she thinks he is juicy: “Any red-blooded woman would say Ant is juicy, and he looks really well. But I’m in a very, very, very happy relationship, I could not be happier. But you know, as I always say, you can go to Waitrose, you don’t have to buy anything.”
Secure in her relationship with fiance Al, who she has been with for 12 years, she added: “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.
“We know where our bread’s buttered with each other. Al 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?”
Lisa had many moments in the jungle where she was applauded for her bravery to speak up about the death of her mum and her sobriety. She was also seen to tenderly encourage fellow campmate Jack to open about Ozzy’s death.
Lisa explained: “People look at us in the public eye and think it is all champagne and baubles. Don’t get me wrong, it is, but I’m not champagne and baubles. I’m fish and chips, and I want to be fish and chips.
“That’s me, and Jack’s the same. I’m so privileged to have been a part of a show that lets that curtain be pulled down. To think, I go to people who say to me, “What do you do in the supermarket?” I’m doing the b***** shopping like you! And that’s what this show exposes: that I’m fish and chips to a fault and long may that be the case.”
