VERNON Kay has revealed Ant and Dec would secretly chat to I'm A Celebrity stars when doing Bushtucker trials.
The TV presenter appeared on the 2020 series, when the jungle show temporarily relocated to the dreary Gwrych Castle in Wales due to lockdown restrictions.
He made it through to the finals, but was eventually beaten by Giovanna Fletcher to the win.
Speaking on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, Vernon recounted his time on the show, declaring it "bonkers".
He also admitted Ant and Dec would secretly spill beans on how the show is going even though they weren't supposed to.
Schools at risk of closing as teachers prepare to vote on joining strike chaos
He said: "I’m A Celebrity was bonkers though. That was nuts. Like to be a part of that and not have the responsibility of kind of holding the reigns."
"Ant and Dec do a great job and watching them work is amazing," he continued. "But because we all kind of know Ant and Dec, and when you go and do a challenge or a task or whatever it is.... They’re kind of just like, ‘Oh is everything okay?’ [and they'd mouth back] ‘Absolutely fabulous.’
"I'm like, okay, ‘Show going well?’ [mouthing back] ‘Brilliant ratings'."
"They can't say anything, but they try and give you enough to make you feel relaxed," he said. "It's a really weird experience ‘cause you're not in control, there's no point trying to think about what's coming and you just gotta let it come at you and enjoy it, and I have."
Vernon also admitted he broke the show's lockdown rules and communicated with a co-star before entering the show - taking things further by getting a burner phone so he could communicate with him, wife Tess Daly and the kids back home when he wasn't supposed to.
"I knew Shane Richie was doing it, so I said to him before and I said, 'look, they're gonna take all our stuff off us, your laptop, you phone', and I said, 'take a burner and then we can keep in touch'.
"So we both had these like manky burner phones. It was like The Wire. But we kind of kept in communication up to the very last day. This is quite a revelation, they're probably ticking off, but you just- having five days of no communication, I need to speak to the kids.
"I need to speak to Tess and make sure that everything's all right, and that not only me, but they are prepared for what's about to happen, you know, because it's a big thing, being in I’m A Celeb."
Dish, hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett is available on all podcast providers now.
Prince William secretly took Kate on 007-style Aston Martin test drive
