I’m A Celebrity 2021’s Richard Madeley opens up on terrifying hospital dash after shock exit

I’m A Celebrity’s Richard Madeley left show fans shocked and more than a little concerned after it was revealed he’d been rushed to hospital and now the presenter has got candid about this terrifying moment.

Good Morning Britain star Richard Madeley was fast becoming a camp favourite as part of the I’m A Celebrity 2021 line-up, but within days his time on the hit reality show was abruptly brought to an end. I’m A Celebrity is on every night, but fans tuning in on November 25th might’ve been confused about why the ITV star wasn’t alongside his fellow cast-members. It emerged that presenter Richard Madeley had to leave the show after being hospitalized.

Now Richard has opened up to hosts Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard on Good Morning Britain about the moment he had to go to hospital, describing it as “disturbing”. 

"I think what happened to me was I got dehydrated. I think that's all it was, but dehydration—if anyone has ever suffered from it—is actually quite disturbing,” he explained. Richard then went on to detail just how this affected him, revealing that at one point he even started talking “nonsense”.

He said, "Basically, I think I'd been up for about 20 hours the day before and the day before that. We were having very, very long days and sleeping quite late. We don't have watches in there, but I don't think I got to bed before four, four thirty in the morning and I knew I was feeling thirsty,” he stated.

Richard continued, "I'm quite bad at remembering to drink actually, to drink water, and I actually snuggled into my sleeping bag and it was freezing, I thought, 'Ah I haven't had a big drink for a while, oh I'll do it when I wake up,' and the next thing I knoe I was sitting there babbling.” 

“I don't know, I was just talking nonsense," he added. “I woke up, I didn't know where I was, what was going on and I could hardly string a sentence together. And you know, as it turned out, it was harmless, there was nothing wrong. I went to the hospital, everything was normal, I had all the tests...I had bloods and all the rest of it. I got a 100% clean bill of health.”

“They were happy for me to go back in. By then, I'd had a cup of tea and a drink of water and I was back on the rails. But ITV has a proper duty of care and if you've got somebody sitting in that castle, talking nonsense at four thirty in the morning—well, that's typical of me anyway—they've gotta check it out,” he said. 

I’m A Celebrity’s Richard Madeley’s exit from the show came as he wrote an emotional post to fans, explaining the situation and insisting that he was feeling “absolutely fine”. 

He shared that he was “gutted” to be leaving so soon, but that due to breaking the show's strict "Covid-19 bubble" he’s unable to re-join his campmates at Gwrych Castle, where I’m A Celebrity 2021 returned to in Wales to film this series.

Richard also delved into this side of things during his Good Morning Britain appearance, stating, "If I had gone back in, having spent two hours out in the real world, you know, with hospital porters and all the rest of it, and had I taken the bug back in, it would’ve killed the show."

“It would’ve spread very, very quickly and the show would’ve been off air. Not because of the storm [Storm Arwen], but because of me," he added. “I don’t blame them [I’m A Celebrity producers] at all. They had to follow the protocol.”