I'm a Celeb attacked for Charlie's daughter stunt

I'm a Celeb attacked for Charlie's daughter stunt
I'm a Celeb attacked for Charlie's daughter stunt (Image credit: PA)

ITV has come under fire for a stunt on I'm A Celebrity... which gave Charlie Brooks' seven-year-old daughter hope that she could see her mum. Viewers saw Charlie and daughter Kiki left gutted on Tuesday night after the EastEnders actress lost a challenge which would have allowed the pair to see each other. Charlie didn't know that Kiki - who has not seen her mum for 18 days - was behind one of the doors in the challenge. "It felt like someone had taken a boot and kicked me in the guts," the actress said after finding out. "I didn't even think having a member of family behind the door would have been an option. This is heartbreaking." Margaret Morrissey, of campaign group Parents Outloud, told the Daily Mail: "I find it staggering that (producers) have used a child in this way. "To involve a seven-year-old is sinking to the bottom." The newspaper quoted a viewer as saying: "For such a small child to hear her mother's voice and look so desolate when she didn't get to see her isn't sitting comfortably with me." But Charlie's mum Roe Brooks told ITV1 show Daybreak that her granddaughter was 'absolutely fine'. "We all agreed it was something she could do and she done it and she was great. She couldn't wait to get back to the location and have her breakfast," she said. A spokesman for I'm A Celebrity... said: "A senior producer saw Kiki afterwards and she was fine. Kiki and her grandma come to the jungle every day with the other friends and family, so the experience wasn't as out of the ordinary as it might look."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.