Ant McPartlin has set the record straight on what happened in the car park with Jimmy Bullard after the I’m A Celebrity finale – and it’s not what you might think
06:20, 30 Apr 2026Updated 08:17, 30 Apr 2026
Ant has set the record staright and confirmed ‘there was no argument'(Image: David Fisher/Shutterstock)
Ant and Dec have revealed exactly what happened in the car park after the I’m A Celebrity finale.
It had been previously reported that Ant was ‘flanked by a security guard in the car park’ when meeting Jimmy Bullard after the live show, but Ant has confirmed this never happened. The heated finale saw Adam Thomas crowned King of the Jungle but he faced arguments with David Haye and Jimmy Bullard which got so intense that Gemma Collins and Sinitta walked off the live show.
Ant and Dec have now revealed exactly what David and Jimmy said in the car park just moments after the show on their podcast ‘Hanging Out with Ant & Dec’.
The live show got heated when David and Jimmy started to argue(Image: Jonathan Hordle/ITV/Shutterstock)
READ MORE: Katie Price slammed by 90s model Gail Porter as she claims she cruelly mocked her hair lossREAD MORE: Ant and Dec reveal full extent of WhatsApp drama between I’m A Celebrity campmates
Dec said: “I went up to David Haye and he went ‘How brilliant was that? Wasn’t that great?’ I went well… It was certainly talk about TV, I wouldn’t call it great but anyway we had a laugh and we were cool and then I’ve walked off and seen Jimmy Bullard and I just shook his hand and I was like ‘look after yourself’ and he was like ‘yeah, yeah cheers, cheers, cheers’. So there was no confrontation. I wasn’t flanked by two security guards as it said in the paper.”
Setting the record straight Ant clarified once again there was no argument in the car park. Dec then said: “I saw David Haye and he said ‘what about that then, hope you get some good ratings for that one’.”
Adam was crowned King of the jungle(Image: Jonathan Hordle/ITV/Shutterstock)
Concluding the section, Ant said: “I just felt it was a shame the crowning moment of I’m A Celebrity South Africa couldn’t have been more celebratory. If anything, remember it for Craig Charles having a bath in the washing up bowl – that’s how I would remember it.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Ant described it as a Jerry Springer moment. “There was people goading each other, it was a weird night of TV,” Ant said, as Dec admitted he didn’t know what to expect.
“There was so much in the press, we weren’t sure what to expect,” Dec said, with Ant adding: “When we got to the studio, someone said did you see Craig Charles on This Morning – and we were gobsmacked that it had escalated to this stage.”
During his appearance on the ITV show, Craig had called the row “unbroadcastable” and said it was “deeply traumatic and really upsetting”. Ant and Dec were expecting David to shake things up but they didn’t know until later that Jimmy was coming.
“He had a bit of a bee in his bonnet and wanted to get that off his chest,” Dec explained. They also said Gemma and Adam had left the WhatsApp group and there had been “lots of moaning and complaining” in the group.
Ant said they had told David and Jimmy, who were sat with the other contestants in the front row, that they’ll get their right to reply in the results show later. “And that’s what happened,” he said.
They then recalled exactly what had happened in the show and said Jimmy had wanted to leave with his full pay and Adam was just “collateral damage”. “The whole thing was weird to me,” Ant said, “Which is why I said quite firmly on the night said I disagree.”
“We tried to handle it as professionally as we could,” Ant said, before revealing they had planned to ask each celebrity a question. “At the end of it, there was a lot of shouting from Jimmy.”
You can listen to the podcast in full on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Global Player and Apple Podcasts.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .