First contestant eliminated from I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

Hollie Arnold has become the first contestant to be eliminated from I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

The Paralympic gold medallist left the campsite at Gwrych Castle in North Wales after receiving the least public votes on Friday night.

The 26-year-old, from Holton-le-Clay in Lincolnshire, lasted 14 days on the ITV show.

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly arrived in camp to announce the news.

McPartlin told the 12 assembled contestants: “The public have been voting for the people they want to keep in camp. The celebrity with the least votes will leave the camp tonight.”

Speaking to them after saying goodbye to her campmates, Arnold admitted she had feared she would be first to go.

She said: “I was so nervous. I had a feeling it might be me. I am slightly superstitious, when you guys were saying the names. I was thinking, ‘It’s going to be me’.

“But honestly I love everybody in there and I love what their values are and what they mean to me. And I will never ever forget this experience, ever.”

Speaking about her overall experience on the show, she added: “I feel like I never really knew what to expect so it was just like go in there and try and enjoy every single moment of it. It was a crazy experience for me.”

Arnold joked she would even miss “that horrible hard bed” and also tipped BBC Radio 1 DJ Jordan North as the eventual winner, describing him as “so lovely”.

Before the eviction, the campmates told each other what they valued most about their experience so far.

West End star Ruthie Henshall broke down in tears as she spoke about how the others had helped her “pull down the mask”, while Vernon Kay told the others they were “the perfect jigsaw of personalities”.

A tearful Beverley Callard added: “I can’t even begin to tell you. I’ve been in Coronation Street for 31 years and I truly have never worked or been with such a bunch of wonderful people as this. I’m proud to have you as friends.”

Their departure came after Shane Richie and AJ Pritchard triumphed during the Chamber Of Horrors challenge.

The former Strictly Come Dancing professional, 26, and soap star, 56, joined forces to win 11 out of a possible 12 stars for their campmates.

Ahead of the challenge, Richie promised the other celebrity contestants: “Tonight, we shall eat like kings and queens.”

Arriving at the challenge, they were told they would be sealed in separate chambers with their bodies submerged below the ground.

Across six rounds, they were tasked with collecting stars using only their tongues, as maggots, locusts, scorpions and giant meal worms rained down upon their heads.

The fifth round saw them covered with snakes and in the sixth wardens arrived to pour rats on to them.

Richie encouraged his partner, saying “Smash it my pal” and they ultimately secured 11 out of 12 stars for camp.

Afterwards Richie admitted: “I’m just numb, I’m broken.”

Returning to camp, Pritchard teased the other contestants, saying: “We tried our best… and tonight we eat like kings and queens. We got 11 stars.”

As the 12 contestants gathered in the campsite, conversation turned to who had met the most famous person.

TV host Vernon Kay regaled his campmates with a story about his wife, Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly, with whom he has two daughters, Phoebe, 16, and Amber, 11.

He said: “When Phoebe was watching Strictly with me, I used to dress up in a suit at first when she was young and we would dance together.

“So she would put a princess dress on, I’d wear a suit and when they were all dancing around we would replicate that and just out the blue one evening she said, ‘Daddy, is my mummy Tess Daly?’

“Because we had never really explained that mummy works on the telly because obviously, mummy’s mummy.”

The celebrities ate venison for dinner before facing the first elimination of the series.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues on ITV.