The real reason Martin Kemp has disappeared from I’m A Celeb is finally exposed

If you’ve been watching this year’s I’m A Celebrity, you might be wondering whether Martin Kemp secretly hopped on the next flight home, because the man is basically not on the show. No trials. No arguments. No airtime. Nothing. It’s like ITV forgot they booked him.

Credit: ITV

And it’s not just us who’s noticed. Both Roman’s family and eliminated contestant Vogue Williams have finally revealed exactly why we never see him. It turns out, he’s shy and has been exempt from a lot of the trials.

Martin’s wife Shirlie told ITV’s Lorraine he’s just a naturally “quiet” guy who prefers to listen rather than shout for the spotlight: “I think Martin’s been quite quiet though because I think that’s who he is, he’s quite quiet, and he likes to listen, so sometimes I want to say, ‘Martin, come on, do more!’ But I think it’s a good rest and a detox for him.”

Martin has yet to take on a Bushtucker Trial since arriving in the jungle on 16th November, and Shirlie is praying he will soon – otherwise, she thinks he won’t make it to the final on Sunday: “He needs more trials, he’s not doing enough. So I think he’s very comfortable, he’s not doing anything to annoy anyone, so no one’s voting for him to do a horrible trial. So we do need to see him do some more trials because I think he’d be up for it, anyway.”

Credit: ITV

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Recently-evicted campmate Vogue Williams also revealed Martin has actually been exempt from a bunch of Bushtucker Trials. According to Vogue, he genuinely wants to get stuck in, but simply hasn’t been allowed to.

Vogue said on Instagram: “Martin did want to do the trials, but he was exempt from some. And I think everybody wanted to do the trials, which was probably unusual for a year. I think that because Martin is a bit quieter he was kinda happy to let everybody else go ahead. Martin’s sound, such a nice guy. He’s really, really lovely.”

His son Roman has been publicly dragging the edit on social media, joking that he has to celebrate whenever his dad actually appears long enough to form a sentence on camera. He has admitted he doesn’t want Martin to make it too far because he’d never live it down if his dad beat the third-place finish he secured back in 2019. Roman took part in the 2019 series of I’m A Celebrity and narrowly missed out on the jungle crown with it going to Jacqueline Jossa. 

So there you have it. Not a disappearance, just a quiet king. Who knew?

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Featured image credit: ITV