Kelly Brook has officially landed in the Australian jungle for her stint on I'm A Celebrity. While she's surrounded by stars from all areas of showbiz on the show, there are two that the model has a frosty history with. In the first episode of the series, Kelly reunited with presenting duo Ant and Dec, whom she allegedly fell out with after being axed from Britain's Got Talent in 2009. After parachuting out of a helicopter to the beach below, Kelly came face to face with the hosts for the first time in 16 years.
Despite the alleged feud, they remained civil on-screen. However, Piers Morgan took to social media to address the elephant in the room. The former Britain's Got Talent host claimed Kelly "still blames them for being fired so fast and ruthlessly.. which isn’t far from the truth". Now that the alleged bitter feud has been brought back into the limelight, read on for a walk back through how it all began and everything Kelly and the duo have said about the falling out over the years.
The alleged feud goes back 16 years
The alleged feud dates back to 2009 when Kelly was hired as a judge on Britain's Got Talent. Her stint on the show didn't last long; she was fired just days after joining the panel. Kelly went on to claim Ant and Dec were the reason she was axed from the show. "There was nothing I could do in this country after Britain's Got Talent. The people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec, and that was it," she said in an old interview. "I would love to have stayed on the show. I really felt it was working out. Ant and Dec had never been anything but pleasant to my face, but clearly, they didn’t want me on the show.
"Their egos are such that they were saying to themselves, ‘How dare she think she can come on to our show?’, and since then they've been very vocal about their displeasure at me being there."Meanwhile, Simon Cowell reportedly put Kelly's exit down to the show's format being suited better to three rather than four judges. He reportedly said at the time, as per The Guardian: "I have genuinely enjoyed working with Kelly. She is absolutely lovely and a complete professional. But it has become clear the format doesn't support another judge and we will never add a fourth judge to the panel."
Piers Morgan claims Kelly 'still blames' Ant and Dec
Piers addressed the feud allegations on Instagram on 17 November amid Kelly's reunion with Ant and Dec on I'm A Celebrity. Piers was on the Britain's Got Talent panel alongside fellow judges Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden when Kelly briefly joined in 2009. The star shared a throwback photo of Kelly with the other judges, as well as Ant and Dec. "As Kelly Brook goes into the I’m A Celebrity jungle, a throwback to when she very briefly appeared as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent.. for just two disastrous days!" he said.
"Be interesting to see how she interacts with Ant and Dec given she still blames them for being fired so fast and ruthlessly.. which isn’t far from the truth. They weren’t happy they hadn’t been consulted by Simon Cowell about Kelly’s sudden hiring - and even less happy when she asked them what they did on the show…"
What Ant and Dec have said about it
Dec addressed Kelly's claims in the duo's 2009 memoir, Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story, recalling an awkward interaction with Kelly during filming. "Kelly looked nervous, so I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax. She nodded, then looked at me and said, 'And what do you do on the show?' I looked at Simon, who was sat next to me, he turned to Kelly and said, 'Kelly, you have seen the show, haven’t you?' To which she replied, 'Yeah... well, bits.'" He continued: "I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac, but the last person who said, 'And what do you do?' was the Queen."
Kelly's reunion with Ant and Dec on I'm A Celebrity
"Ant and Dec, I'm coming for you!" Kelly said on the first episode of I'm A Celeb on 16 November, before parachuting out of a helicopter and reuniting with the presenting duo for the first time in more than a decade. Kelly was one of the first five celebs to arrive on the show. She was in a group with rapper Aitch, Eddie Kadi, Shona McGarty and Martin Kemp for her first awkward face to face interactions with Ant and Dec.
Viewers took to social media to point out the bitter history between the three stars. "Do people realise Kelly Brook & Ant and Dec have serious beef with each other," one person said. Another wrote: "Just realised. Doesn’t Kelly Brook not like Ant and Dec after what happened at Britain’s Got Talent?"