Olivia Attwood hopes to return to I’m A Celebrity.
The Love Island star made a premature exit from the jungle last year just a day into the series.
Having flown back to the UK from Australia, Olivia spoke exclusively on This Morning about her short stint in the show.
Olivia shared: “There’s loads [of rumours] swirling around the internet and I think ‘Olivia Attwood pregnant’ was trending on Twitter – and it’s not that I can assure you – and it’s not that exciting when it boils down to it.
“I was pulled out on my first day in main camp for routine medical checks – which can be blood pressure, giving blood – so I had my blood taken and the results came back that my iron was low, I was showing that I was anaemic. Potassium was really low, sodium was really low, so basically all the markers you would look for were low so they consulted with a doctor outside of camp and they said I would need to come to A&E basically off the back of those readings, so I was taken to the nearest A&E department, admitted in there where they ran their own checks and their checks came back normal, so…”
She added: “Just before leaving the UK I’d had all those checks and everything was normal and the first thing I said to the camp doctor was ‘is that possible for things to change in such a short time?’ and he didn’t really have an answer, but that it was not normal and why we need to see what’s going on…”
Olivia continued: “It was quite long [the journey] because everything’s so far away in Australia and I was thinking ‘oh am I pregnant?’ or ‘have I picked up a virus?’ and wondering how things have changed so much, and also I felt well. I didn’t feel ill.
“I saw things online saying, ‘I bet she fainted’ but there was nothing… I was loving it [in the jungle] as you can see, I was really in my element and I felt healthy so I was even more confused. It was all really strange.”
On realising that she couldn’t return to camp afterwards, Olivia explained: “I was like ‘shall we go back?’ and I knew there would be Covid tests and things like that but there was a pause in proceedings there, and it was late at night and taking me back into camp doesn’t work logistically so I went to a hotel and basically as I now know the conversations went on all through the night with production obviously desperate to have me back in, but the medical team… I think it’s an insurance thing. Because they had those readings, they had to seek other party opinions and it’s a collective decision. I think they thought the readings might drop that low again and they wouldn’t be covered because it’s already been flagged up.”
Olivia added: “I’ve been a big fan of the show all my life, and those conversations about joining the jungle happened when I left Love Island the first year, so it’s been like five years in the making…and it was the first time they’ve put someone from the show on there…
“I think when you come off reality shows, you get a huge opportunity, and I’ve done amazing things, but also, I think you can be put in a box and I was looking forward to showing a different side to myself. I am not a quitter, I am not scared of much, and I was just loving it. I was looking forward to having that exposure to a new audience.”
When asked how she might’ve been with Matt Hancock, Olivia said: ” think it’s a difficult one. When you’re living in those environments you have to take things carefully, but I probably would’ve done it with humour and given him a bit of stick that he deserves…”
And of potentially doing I’m a Celebrity another year, Olivia replied: “It might be more of a logistical thing to make it work…I would love to because yeah, it was cut short. [Tests are still normal] thank God, I’m grateful that I’m healthy, but it makes it harder to accept. But it is what it is, there are worse things happening in the world.”
To see the full interview visit itv.com/hub
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
