Latest / Stories Today / I’m a Celebrity 2026: Meet the Rumoured Jungle Contestants
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: ITV has confirmed I'm a celebrity. Get me out of here.
- 0:05Speaker 1: Returns on Monday 16 November, 2026 at 9pm. The broadcaster
- 0:12Speaker 1: has not named a single campmate. Reports point to a
- 0:16Speaker 1: 12-strong cast led by Wayne Rooney, with Joanna Page, Ada Deperton,
- 0:21Speaker 1: AJ Odudu and YouTuber Sharky also tipped to join. The
- 0:26Speaker 1: I'm a Celebrity 2026 rumors have been building since the summer.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Ant and December are back, the Jungle set is standing,
- 0:34Speaker 1: and only the official cast list is missing. Here is
- 0:37Speaker 1: what holds up so far. When does I'm a Celebrity
- 0:42Speaker 1: 2026 start? The launch is set for Monday, 16 November,
- 0:47Speaker 1: at 9pm on ITV1, STV, ITVX and STV Player. Radio
- 0:54Speaker 1: Times picked up on the move to a Monday, breaking
- 0:57Speaker 1: the show's usual Sunday habit. Hart set out the reason,
- 1:01Speaker 1: ITV now holds UEFA Nations League rights, and England meet
- 1:05Speaker 1: Spain on Sunday, 15 November. Episodes then run nightly for
- 1:10Speaker 1: an hour across three weeks. No end date has been published,
- 1:15Speaker 1: but The Sun expects the final to take place on
- 1:17Speaker 1: 6 or 7 December. Ant McPartlin and December Donnelly host
- 1:22Speaker 1: live from Australia. Spin-off, I'm a Celebrity. Unpacked returns live
- 1:29Speaker 1: on ITV2 and ITVX, fronted by Sam Thompson and Kimi Rogers.
- 1:35Speaker 1: Joel Dommert, who began presenting it in November 2024, is
- 1:39Speaker 1: not back. 12 reported campmates. The Sun was first with
- 1:44Speaker 1: the full reported lineup, which spanned football, soap, music, modeling, radio,
- 1:50Speaker 1: journalism and YouTube. ITV has not budged. A spokesperson told
- 1:56Speaker 1: Metro that any suggested names were just speculation. Wayne Rooney
- 2:01Speaker 1: leads it. The former England captain, 41, has reportedly banked
- 2:06Speaker 1: a six-figure fee. He is Manchester United's all-time leading scorer
- 2:11Speaker 1: and has won 120 England caps. His wife, Colleen, finished
- 2:17Speaker 1: runner-up in 2024. Colleen proved to be hugely popular when
- 2:22Speaker 1: she took part two years ago, and bosses think Wayne
- 2:25Speaker 1: is going to match her success, an insider said. Rooney
- 2:29Speaker 1: was tight-lipped on this morning in late September, saying, There
- 2:33Speaker 1: are rumors again this year. So you'll have to wait
- 2:36Speaker 1: and see. The pair already filmed the Disney Plus series
- 2:40Speaker 1: The Real Rooneys. Ada Depperton could rewrite the show's history
- 2:45Speaker 1: as its first wheelchair user. Born in Lagos, the 53-year-old
- 2:50Speaker 1: contracted polio as a toddler, losing the use of his
- 2:53Speaker 1: left leg, and moved to the UK aged three. He
- 2:57Speaker 1: won wheelchair basketball bronze at the 2004 Athens Paralympics and
- 3:02Speaker 1: gold at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup. Producers are currently
- 3:07Speaker 1: looking at ways to adapt the camp to make it
- 3:09Speaker 1: work for aid. They think his infectious, larger-than-life personality would
- 3:15Speaker 1: make him a perfect campmate for the new series, a
- 3:17Speaker 1: source said. He would be the third Paralympian in camp,
- 3:21Speaker 1: after Holly Arnold and Kadena Cox. TV and soap contingent.
- 3:27Speaker 1: Joanna Page is treated as a real coup. The Welsh actress, 49,
- 3:33Speaker 1: played Stacey in Gavin and Stacey and appeared in Love Actually.
- 3:38Speaker 1: She won Taskmaster this year and sits on Loose Women.
- 3:42Speaker 1: I'm a celeb bosses want her in the jungle so
- 3:44Speaker 1: the public can get to know the real Joanna, an
- 3:47Speaker 1: insider said. She has four children. A.J. Odudu, 38, is
- 3:53Speaker 1: the other presenting name. The Blackburn-born Big Brother host has
- 3:58Speaker 1: done Strictly and Gladiators. Her ITV series wraps on Thursday,
- 4:03Speaker 1: 5 November, clearing her diary. Claire Sweeney, 55, fills the
- 4:09Speaker 1: soap slot. She played Lindsay Corkhill in Brookside and spent
- 4:13Speaker 1: three years as Cassie Plummer in Coronation Street, leaving in August. Music,
- 4:19Speaker 1: Modelling and Comedy Ricky Wilson, 48, has reportedly finally given in.
- 4:26Speaker 1: The Kaiser Chiefs frontman coached on The Voice UK from
- 4:30Speaker 1: 2014 to 2016. I'm a celebrity bosses have been trying
- 4:34Speaker 1: to sign Ricky up for years, but he's always politely declined.
- 4:39Speaker 1: Now he's finally given in, a source said. Lee Francis, 53,
- 4:44Speaker 1: is going in as himself, not Keith Lemon. Ant and
- 4:48Speaker 1: December have long pushed for it. If we got Lee
- 4:51Speaker 1: Francis in the jungle, and we had to stand by
- 4:53Speaker 1: and watch him do a trial, let's try and make
- 4:56Speaker 1: that happen. Liamie Anderson, 33, brings the fashion credentials. The
- 5:02Speaker 1: model walked four Victoria's Secret shows from 2015 to 2018
- 5:07Speaker 1: and became the first black British angel in 2019. She
- 5:11Speaker 1: went out first on Netflix's Celebrity Bear Hunt, though insiders
- 5:15Speaker 1: call her a tough cookie who has what it takes
- 5:18Speaker 1: to conquer the jungle. The Standard also lists broadcaster Mariella Frostrup,
- 5:24Speaker 1: a loose women panellist with four decades behind her, as
- 5:27Speaker 1: this year's prestige booking. Jack Skipper is the least familiar name.
- 5:33Speaker 1: The South London stand-up, 36, fitted carpets before comedy. The
- 5:38Speaker 1: Independent notes his heavy TikTok following. Social media pics. Chloe
- 5:44Speaker 1: Burrows came second on Love Island in 2021. and now
- 5:48Speaker 1: co-hosts Kiss Breakfast with Tyler West. She has a very
- 5:52Speaker 1: big following on social media too, very much like Angry
- 5:56Speaker 1: Ginge and GK Barry, and ITV bosses think she could
- 5:59Speaker 1: bring in a younger audience, an insider said. She quit
- 6:04Speaker 1: Celebrity SAS, who dares wins after two episodes. Sharky, real
- 6:10Speaker 1: name Shah Mark Muhammad, is the YouTube pick. The 30-year-old
- 6:14Speaker 1: Beta Squad member, has roughly 1.5 million subscribers and 2.2
- 6:19Speaker 1: million TikTok followers, and Capital Extra lists him in the
- 6:23Speaker 1: reported dozen. Names that dropped out of the frame. Not
- 6:28Speaker 1: every rumor made the cut. Strictly professional Nadia Bichkova, Miss
- 6:33Speaker 1: Teek Suelis Nash and Junior and Princess Andre were linked earlier.
- 6:38Speaker 1: Retired cricketer Ben Stokes was priced at 4-1 by Ladbrokes,
- 6:42Speaker 1: whose Alex Apati said, Ben Stokes could soon be swapping
- 6:45Speaker 1: cricket for crickets, if the latest odds are anything to
- 6:48Speaker 1: go by. Inside the camp and the hotels Aerial pictures
- 6:54Speaker 1: last week showed a huge house of horrors and a
- 6:57Speaker 1: water trial pool going up. The crew and stand INS
- 7:01Speaker 1: test every trial first. Campmates spend about a week in
- 7:05Speaker 1: secret five-star hotels, often move mid-stay to dodge photographers, and
- 7:10Speaker 1: lose their phones on landing. Doctors check that each one
- 7:14Speaker 1: is fit to compete. After eviction, they return to the
- 7:18Speaker 1: Gold Coast, where J.W. Marriott's suites start at £ 650 a night.
- 7:24Speaker 1: What the new cast is chasing. Angraging, real name Morgan Birtwistle,
- 7:30Speaker 1: won Series 25 with 65% of the final vote, beating
- 7:34Speaker 1: Tom Red Wilson, who got 35%. Shona McGardy came third.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Adam Thomas then won this year's chaotic All-Stars run, earning
- 7:44Speaker 1: the title of Ultimate Jungle Legend. Whoever walks in on
- 7:48Speaker 1: the 16th of November has a high bar to clear.