You don’t have to agree with Nella Rose to know the pile-on against her is too much

Thanks to explosive editing and claustrophobically close quarters, live-in reality TV shows establish their villains quickly. But nobody expected 26-year-old YouTuber and presenter Nella Rose to irreparably boil the blood of the British public as a contestant on the 2023 series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here in under seven days.

Yet, in less than a week of episodes, viewers have called Nella a “bloated, incoherent, ignorant buffoon”, the “most hated person in the UK right now”, an “uppity little bitch”, and many worse gendered and racially charged insults which can’t and shouldn’t be repeated here.

In the past 24 hours, there has been a wave of 11.6k Tweets criticising Nella’s behaviour in the jungle. Meanwhile, there were fewer than 2,000 comments about supposedly one of the most divisive politicians in modern Britain— former UKIP leader Nigel Farage who is also a contestant on the show and predictably enjoying a redemption arc.

So, what exactly did Nella Rose do to be the only campmate to receive this unprecedented torrent of online I’m A Celeb-fuelled abuse? She got offended when First Dates maître d’hôtel Fred Sirieix told her he was old enough to be her father, later revealing her dad had died four years ago and the topic is still intensely triggering for her.

When Fred apologised, Nella said: “I accept your apology but let’s not be friends, how about that?”. She wasn’t interested in an immediate reconciliation— even if it was a misunderstanding. “Get her out. Talentless, rude and disrespectful,” Tweeted one person as a campaign for Nella to be the first person to leave the jungle was launched. “A horrible, over dramatic, nasty person,” added another. “She incapsulates everything that’s wrong with society,” claimed a third. 

It only takes a small shuffle away from your screen and a quick touch of some grass to see the online fury towards Nella Rose is totally a disproportionate reaction to her supposedly offensive behaviour. Many people have done and said far worse on this programme and been publicly reprimanded far less. Lady C started an argument every other day. Boy George had a criminal record. Chris Moyles was an accused homophobic and racist. Spencer Matthews was booted off for taking steroids before he even reached the main camp.

Additionally, it’s important to remember I’m A Celebrity is an edited television show. The nuances of arguments – their context and build up – can be totally lost in the translation from contestant’s reality to our eyeballs. All we’ve seen is small clippings of hours worth of content. It’s easy to forget the campmate’s hanger, frustration and underlying feuds.

Since the Nella Rose debate erupted, the argument has been dubbed a generational issue: “Nella Rose’s I’m a Celeb outburst proves Gen Z are too quick to be offended,” The Independent claimed. But, if young people are too quick to get aggrieved, everyone else is even quicker to show their love of online bullying. This whole saga has been needlessly and venomously judgemental.

You might think Nella overreacted to Fred’s “old enough to be your dad” comment, whether she’s still grieving or not. Maybe you even sided with Nigel Farage during their immigration debate last night. But you don’t have to agree with Nella Rose to know the pile-on against her is way too much.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Ranked: The stonking huge net worths of the I’m A Celeb 2023 campmates

• A dramatic recap of the whole Zara McDermott and Sam Thompson cheating scandal

• Ranked: These are officially the highest paid I’m A Celeb stars of all time

Featured image credit via ITV/Lifted Entertainment