David Ginola has said he did not make former BBC Breakfast host Louise Minchin cry during their heated moment on I’m A Celebrity and explained he is someone that prefers to speak his mind “straight to the person”.
The football star, who narrowly missed out on a place in the show’s final after being eliminated in Saturday’s episode, had a row with Minchin on her last day in the castle where he told her she was being “too bossy” after taking over his title of camp leader.
Ginola, 54, also reflected on leaving before the final episode but said his experience was a “victory anyway” and feels he has had a “second adoption” by the British public.
He gave us hours of entertainment and the Castle won’t be the same without him, but David Ginola is the last Campmate we say au revoir to before the Final! ❤️ #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/QOShP6l5CF
— I'm A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) December 11, 2021
Following his exit from the show on Saturday night, the football star denied making the TV presenter cry during the dispute and said: “I didn’t make Louise cry, that’s not true. I’m a man who, when he has to say something, he says it straight to the person.
“I’m not talking to a third person or fourth person, I go straight to the person and I say what I don’t like and what I like.
“It will have been the same if I like something, I go to someone and I say, ‘I really do appreciate what you’re doing’, and it’s the same way if I don’t like (it).
“I just made a point on the fact that being leader of the camp doesn’t mean that you are leading the camp, you are not in the army, we are not like army soldiers, we are just making a show for the people. I just wanted to say ‘don’t take it too seriously, don’t be too bossy’.”
He continued: “So you like it or not, but I rather prefer myself to have someone coming straight at me saying ‘Well, David, I don’t like this or I don’t like that’ rather than the same person going to talk to someone else about me. It doesn’t work.
“So when you want to have a good relationship in a camp like that, there were 11 of us, I didn’t know any one of them and I just wanted to say something when I have to say something because it’s me.
“I didn’t want to make her cry, I just made a point, I didn’t say anything bad. And if you’re really upset about that, that means that you think twice, maybe you think I was right.”
Minchin, 53, has previously spoken out on being emotional on her last day in the Welsh castle and had later cried due to a number of things, citing Ginola’s comments about her leadership style as one of the reasons.
The football star also revealed that fellow contestant, Corrie star Simon Gregson, had been “shocked” that he was voted out and said the actor had told him earlier in the day, “I’m going to see you and Danny walking down and going to the final together”.
Reflecting on leaving the camp the day before the final, he said: “When I arrived in this country in 1995 when I signed for Newcastle United, I was adopted by the public almost straight away and for the seven years I spent in England.
“And for me, it was a second adoption because honestly, I thought I could have gone earlier than that and they (the public) have kept me into the semi-finals.
“It didn’t really matter to me to win this. I look at it as an experience, as something to challenge myself.
“If I had to go to the final and win big as king of the castle it would have been, in French, the cherry on the cake.”
He added his experience was a “victory anyway” and feels it was for all the contestants for enduring the difficult conditions of the camp.