I’m A Celebrity proves Kelly Brook has always been TV’s easiest target

The most consistent thread of Kelly Brook’s long career has been how cruelly she’s been treated, and now that she’s on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here –  it’s become clear that times still haven’t changed. 

At 19, she quit The Big Breakfast after being brutally mocked for her performance and failing to live up to the expectations set by Denise Van Outen, who had just parted ways with Johnny Vaughn.

For context, at the time Johnny and Denise were so popular that it was like trying to replace Ant or Dec – an impossible feat.

She was so unfairly scrutinised for not creating their chemistry from the get-go, and the press went to town on a teenager who, in hindsight, had been given an impossible task. 

A decade later, in 2009, Simon Cowell dropped her as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent after just a week of filming, claiming a panel of four made the format ‘too complicated’ – though she later said Ant and Dec had actually been the issue. 

Making for an awkward reunion this year in Australia. 

Brook was also axed from Celebrity Love Island after one season and replaced by Fearne Cotton.

Now she’s one of the stand out campmates on I’m A Celebrity but it seems like she still isn’t landing with the public. 

In a matter of days she was branded a ‘bully’ for getting mildly irritated with Jack Osbourne for dominating the cooking – and for skinning a potato like a chimpanzee.

She might be a terrible cook, but given the horrendous campmates I’m A Celeb fans have endured in the past, she’s comparatively a saint.

Yet, Jack’s sister Kelly Osbourne, even went as far as calling her a ‘bully’ and said she wanted to ‘attack’ her. 

Between the aggressive wrath of the Osbourne family, tension with Ant and Dec, and unreasonably strong criticism from the general public, I’m increasingly baffled as to why smiley, bubbly Kelly is being perceived as such a nightmare.

She simply can’t seem to do anything right in the eyes of the public. They just don’t understand her – and never have – even though she has always been consistently lovely and warm when life (and people) haven’t always been kind to her.

On Saturday night, she was asked about being a ‘sex kitten’ by Lisa Riley, as though that’s a compliment. Kelly explained: ‘Yeah, but it’s weird – it doesn’t match your soul, what you portray. The face and the façade and the body don’t match the person. I’m a clown inside.’

Kelly was obviously well known for being sexy, but if she didn’t have talent or a personality she wouldn’t still be as culturally relevant as she is today. 

And almost 30 years after Big Breakfast, she’s so easily reduced to just a body. The body might have brought in the lucrative magazine covers in the 2000s, but it’s the ‘clown inside’ that’s given her longevity in a brutal industry. 

In a line-up that boasts Aitch, Angry Ginge, Martin Kemp and Ruby Wax – for me Kelly is still one of the big draws of this year’s cast.

Less than a week into this year’s series, her husband Jeremy Parisi was forced to fight back against misogynistic trolls scrutinising her figure after she publicly refused weight-loss jabs before going into the jungle.

He told The Mirror: ‘I’m so happy to see Kelly being so confident and happy in her own skin.

It’s hard for women in the public eye to be put under such scrutiny, but she is a positive role model for so many women, which is something she should be proud of.’

Jeremy’s spot on, Kelly has always been a positive role model, yet she’s not being celebrated for that. Instead, somehow she’s being bullied for her body – which is astonishing, given she remains one of the most beautiful women in the world and likely always will be. 

While anonymous online trolls gleefully comment on her, Kelly’s also been praised for her ‘natural beauty’. Yes, it’s wonderful Kelly hasn’t promoted surgery or weight-loss jabs, which she never needed, but she deserves to be celebrated for so much more. 

During lockdown, her Heart FM radio show became an unexpected highlight of my day when I was driving back from work. Few presenters are as comforting as Kelly, whose spirits are always high with energy that always uplifts.

That presenting gig has arguably been her biggest success – the one job that has stuck with no signs of ending. Why that success hasn’t translated to television is a mystery to me; perhaps due to her own theory that her ‘body doesn’t match the person’. 

Now on screen again, a similar pattern is emerging with the public’s response to her. She’s either being deeply misunderstood as a ‘bully’ or horrendously ridiculed for having an hourglass figure – both of which say far more about the audience – and Kelly Osbourne – than they do about her.

Currently, bookies have Kelly down as one of the least likely stars in camp to be crowned Queen of the Jungle, alongside Alex Scott and Vogue Williams. 

She won’t win I’m A Celebrity but she doesn’t deserve her legacy to be defined by a tense moment with controlling Jack Osbourne or stripping to a bikini for a jungle shower.

For over two decades, Kelly has shown she is much brighter and kinder than she’s ever been given credit for and I’m A Celebrity still could – and should – be the catalyst to prove that. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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