Frankie Bridge has likened taking part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! to childbirth, saying it was “awful at the time, but afterwards you’re like, I’d do that again”.
The Saturdays singer, 32, came third in the latest instalment of the ITV series, which ended on Sunday with Emmerdale star Danny Miller being crowned the winner, and Coronation Street’s Simon Gregson taking second place.
Voting figures released by ITV show that in the final head-to-head, soap star Miller received just over 55% of the votes.
She was ‘All Fired Up’ to face her fears and did just that! @frankiebridge has had an incredible journey and finishes in third place! 🏰 #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/MjX4IqmNA5
— I'm A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) December 12, 2021
Bridge told the PA news agency: “I think when you watch it, you can see that it’s hard, but I don’t think you realise just how hard it is.
“And I don’t think the audience really get to see that as much as, you know, because it’s a fun show.
“But it’s so much harder than I ever imagined but also so much more amazing. The only way I can describe it is it’s a bit like childbirth – it’s awful at the time, but afterwards you’re like, yeah, I’d do that again.”
In making the final, she beat her husband, former footballer Wayne Bridge, who took part in the programme in Australia in 2016 and came fifth.
During the final episode of this year’s series the remaining three contestants had to do solo challenges to win the courses for their last dinner together.
Miller competed to win starters, Gregson for main courses and Bridge to win desserts.
The Tomb of Doom saw her locked inside a tomb for 10 minutes with an increasing number of snakes, with the final two minutes in total darkness.
The singer started repeating her dessert choice to herself, saying: “Apple crumble, apple crumble.”
Asked what she’d learnt about herself during the series, the mother of two said: “I learnt that I can be really silly and really childish, and I think obviously I know that side of me is there, it comes out a lot at work and with my friends and stuff.
“But actually, not as a mum of two, and as quite a young mum I’ve had to, and with work, I’ve had to grow up really quickly.
“And you know, when I’m at home (it’s) dinner, baths, school stuff, all these things, and actually I was like, I really want to bring more of that silliness home for my boys.
“But also I learned that I’m so much more resilient than I give myself credit for, and there were times there where I genuinely wanted to come home and I managed to pick myself up and laugh and have a great day, and I think that that was like a big lesson for me.”
The series, filmed at Gwrych Castle near Abergele in North Wales for the second year running, was an eventful one with intruders removed on two separate occasions during filming and the contestants evacuated when production was interrupted by Storm Arwen.
Bridge said of them having to leave the castle: “It was really stressful. I remember thinking while we were in there, I thought, I didn’t know obviously how the public were going to perceive that.
“And I thought I bet there’s a lot of people that will only see this as almost like a break for us, and obviously in a way it was.
“I got to be warm, I got to have a hot bath and I ate some normal food, but actually, when we were told that we were going to have to leave, a lot of people were really stressed out, like Snoochie (Shy) started crying.
“Because we wanted to be together, we didn’t realise they were going to split us up again.
“And mentally, when you enter the castle, you kind of tell yourself, ‘Right, when I leave, I’m going to talk to my family and I’m going to go home’.
“So leaving and not being allowed to do that was really confusing.”