Fred Sirieix takes swipe at Josie Gibson after 'car crash' I'm A Celebrity row

13 December 2023 , 09:05

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Fred Sirieix has taken a swipe at Josie Gibson (Image: ITV)

I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here's Fred Sirieix has finally addressed his infamous row over cooking on the show, just days after Sam Thompson emerged this year's winner.

The First Dates star butted heads with Josie Gibson over her culinary skills after she replaced him as camp chef on the ITV reality series. Fred, who became the third star eliminated from the jungle, complained that the This Morning host's didn't know how to properly make rice. Fred has now spoken out about the quarrel, accusing Josie of failing to "listen" to his instruction and slamming the situation as a "car crash."

"When you cook in camp, you have to cook fast because everyone is very hungry and you have to know when to cook the ingredients to get the best out of them," the 51-year-old said on Wednesday's I'm A Celebrity...Coming Out show. "'I'm just watching a car crash in real time and the thing that makes it worse is she doesn’t listen." Things came to a head between Josie and Fred on the show when he became fixated on how the 38-year-old made dinner for the rest of the camp, after he'd been demoted from chef to pot washer.

Fred has accused Josie of not listening about the cooking (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

"There is a way to cook the rice. If not, the rice tastes bitter and it's really unpleasant in the morning, so hopefully they'll get it right," he said in the Bush Telegraph. The E4 star's concerns about the rice quickly caused tension in the camp, prompting Youtuber Nella to say: "It's just rice. I'm not going crazy, it's just rice. I'm going back to sleep." The spat comes just days after she asked Fred if they were living in a "camp or a dictatorship", after he complained that the standard of dishwashing was unacceptable.

This was far from the first time that Fred had had conflict with his fellow campmates. Tensions escalated between him and Nella at the beginning of the series over a comment he made about being "old enough" to be the 26-year-old's father. The Internet personality was left offended by the off-hand remark, which came shortly after she had told Fred her dad in real life had passed away in 2020. Nella confronted the m'aitre d'hotel about his words the following day, and although he apologised, she told him she wasn't interested in being friends.

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Nella has since opened up about the quarrel, which divided the Internet as many took to side with Fred after she'd refused to move past it. “Any dad joke is very triggering for me as my dad was my best friend and I lost him quite recently in 2020," she said after being eliminated. "I don’t deal well with dad jokes and I take them to heart. But we blessed it over. Me and Fred are cool.”

Nella also insisted that Fred "isn’t a bad person" but explained that, due to the heightened emotions in the camp, "We just got into a very heated back and forth where my triggers were triggered."

Emma Dooney