There’ll be fewer laughs around the campfire as comedian and television personality Dave Hughes is the latest to leave the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here (I’m A Celeb) jungle.
“I’m still here, watching them all as they sleep,” Dave joked as we spoke on the phone this morning. “I’ll be telling Matty J that he used the bathroom at 12.03 am…he’s been in there a while…wonder what he’s doing.”
Dave certainly made his mark on this season of I’m A Celeb. This season, Hughesy came in as a team captain, struck up bromances with his fellow campmates, and used his time to connect with nature and get fit in the jungle gym.
He kept the laughs going throughout trials and downtimes but also opened up about his thirty years of sobriety and his struggles with self-image.
Dave also broke his 15-year vegan streak and chowed down on lamb jaw and tongue and boar penis during the grim Grilling Me Softly tucker trial!
The Weekly was lucky enough to catch up with Dave just after his elimination and talk all about his experience…
The Weekly: What was the best thing you experienced in the jungle?
Dave: The best thing I experienced in the jungle was learning patience, so I’m now a patient person. I’m now 26 or 27 days with no phone, no screens whatsoever, no music, no books, absolutely nothing but the company of twelve other people — and beans and rice.
If you don’t learn patience in that month you’re going to come out pretty insane. I think I’ve come out calmer. I’ve also lost like 8 kilos! I’m the lightest I’ve been since I was 21 and I’m now 54.
And I’ve learned that you can live without salt!
What was the hardest challenge to get through?
Look, the hardest part of the whole thing was not being able to see my family.
I’ve been with my wife for 23 years and we haven’t gone even three hours without communicating in that time no matter what we’re doing basically if I’m off doing comedy or TV or she’s full-time teaching we still contact all day every day. So we’ve gone 26 days without contact that was a weird thing. That was the hardest thing.
So will the first you do when you get home be to hug and chat with your wife?
Well, she’s flying to South Africa with my children right now so they’ll be here tomorrow. We’re going to stay here hug some family in about 15 hours and we’ll hopefully drive around and not get eaten by lions! We’ll have some fun!
Well in one of the challenges you broke your 15-year vegan streak. What was that like? Will you drop the veganism now?
I’ll never eat a bull’s penis again. That was a one-time bull penis! But, look, if I’m going to be honest, the lamb tongue was better than the bull’s penis. Lamb’s tongue wasn’t too bad.
I’m not a meat eater. But if someone said they had to eat a part of a lamb’s body I’d probably say go for the tongue. Ha ha, who knew how tasty lamb’s tongue was?!
But that’s the last of the lamb’s tongue as well. My last bull’s penis and my last lamb’s tongue.
Is there anything that you’re going to miss about the jungle?
I will miss the creek. There’s a creek right next to where the campbeds are. The sound of running water. The water and the creek are just bloody magnificent. It really brought me back to enjoying nature. So hopefully that’s what I can take from my experience. Hopefully, I can take the quietness that I had at the camp.
It was a life-changing experience, my blood pressure now is as good as it’s been in thirty years as well. So, I’ve actually come out really fit, well for myself. Relatively fitter than I was when I went in. So I’ve achieved that. I wanted to get fit and I think I have to a degree.
It was a jungle diet, and I kept standing up the whole time when everyone else was lying in their bunks, I was standing and walking around. They just thought that I’d lost the plot, but actually, it was because I wanted to get fit.
Who do you hope will win I’m A Celeb this year?
Look there’s all lovely people, so I’d be happy for any of them. But I hope Reggie wins. Reggie Bird won Big Brother twice, so she’d get the triple crown with I’m a Celebrity. So that’s my real wish that Reggie gets the job done in a few days.
The finale of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here airs on Channel 10 and 10Play on Sunday, February 16, 2025.
