I'm A Celebrity: Stacey Solomon wins!

I'm A Celebrity: Stacey Solomon wins!
I'm A Celebrity: Stacey Solomon wins!

Stacey Solomon has been crowned Queen of the Jungle in I'm A Celebrity... 2010! The former X Factor finalist - who had been the hot favourite to take the title - fought off competition from Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder in the final after she received the most votes from the viewers. The pair had been left in the jungle to compete for victory after fellow camp mate Jenny Eclair finished in third place on Friday night. Stacey, 21, broke down in tears upon hearing the news and hugged Ryder - and she appeared unable to believe that she had triumphed even as she took her place on the winner's throne. "Thank you so much," she said. "I don't know what to say." She also apologised for her "bad breath" as Caroline Flack crowned her the new Queen of the Jungle before crossing the bridge to be reunited with her boyfriend Aaron Barnham, mother Fiona and son Zach. Earlier in the show Stacey told Ant and Dec she had thoroughly enjoyed her jungle experience. "I've had the best time ever and Lord only knows I'm annoying," she said, "so thank you for having me. Making it to the final is the best feeling in the world." She also praised runner-up Ryder, saying "He's such a nice bloke and he's so normal. It was nice to spend my final hours with sanity." Ryder, meanwhile, said he "never in a million years" thought he would reach the final, and was his usual outspoken self when it came to recalling certain aspects of his time in camp, such as the snake that had bitten him while he was in camp. "I wanted to pull it out and smash it to bits," he said. "But it's an animal." And he was less than kind about some of his fellow campmates, in particular Gillian McKeith, with whom he had a falling out over the Celebrity Chest task. "Gillian's me me me me," he admitted. "People like that really bug me." The winner was revealed after both finalists went head to head for one last Bushtucker trial entitled Bush Spa. The pair had to endure being covered in various jungle bugs and critters for 30 seconds at a time, with former campmates Lembit Opik and Dom Joly being punished by being covered in slime if either of them failed.

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.