Viewers at home watched as a fed-up Deni Hines became the first campmate of 2026 to utter that famous line, “I’m a celebrity… get me out of here!”
Fresh from all the jungle drama, one of Deni’s first calls was to mum Marcia, who flew to be by her side in Thailand – where they both cherished the anonymity that Deni’s adopted country brings.
“My mum was just here last week and I loved it because she was just so relaxed – no-one knows who she is here and she can just exist,” Deni tells Woman’s Day.
“I said, ‘Mum, you are so relaxed, you’ve got to come back’. That’s why I love living here – nobody knows who I am, I sing on a Friday night but they don’t who my mother is, they don’t know who I’ve dated, they don’t know who I’m married to. They don’t care.”
While the outspoken singer admits it was “another night of rice and beans” and a phobia of the long drop that ultimately pushed her over the edge on I’m A Celeb…, she easily could have done without the drama with certain campmates, such as former MAFS star Cyrell Paule!
“That’s one person that I would never be friends with – we don’t get along, we’re just two different people,” Deni tells Woman’s Day matter-of-factly about the tension with Cyrell.
“And that’s fine because life is like that. There’s people that you just don’t gel with but the problem is, you’re not on television with them and they don’t say something stupid to aggravate you.”
When quizzed about the personality clash with Cyrell, 36, Deni elaborates, “I think it’s age, I think it’s experience – I’ve done a lot, I’m 55, I’ve travelled around the world, I’ve lived around the world, and she called me a ‘know it all’.
“Maybe I am, I’ve done some shit, what have you done – three reality shows?”
Cyrell’s indifference towards Deni’s long singing career, and the comparison to her mother, seasoned singer Marcia, 72, was met with a mixed reaction online, but for Deni, it crossed a line.
“There was one point I felt incredibly disrespected – and I only saw this after – she went, ‘Everyone knows Marcia, nobody knows Deni, it’s all about Marcia’,” she says. “And if you really want to get under my nerves, say that.”
Aside from a few arguments with campmates Cyrell and Nathan [Valvo], and a little too much “chatter”, the singer says she found it surprisingly easy being in the jungle despite it being a very different environment to the peaceful lifestyle she leads in Thailand with her husband, Daniel Moses.
“They took a black girl with dreadlocks with African genes, thinking she’s going to have a problem in Africa?” Deni laughs. “I had no problems sleeping through the storms, I had no problems getting the wood, I had no problems washing clothes or cooking breakfast, making the fire.
“I could have been with a few less people… I spend a lot of time by myself, in peace, I don’t have kids, so the constant chatter was really… I needed headphones just to block it out, and I couldn’t bring headphones in!”
Deni admits one goal she had going into the reality show was to “get one good friendship out of this”, and she came out with a few.
“Rachel and I swapped numbers, I love Rachel Hunter, I think she’s an amazing woman, we’re both Virgos, and the two vegetarians on the show,” Deni says.
“I’ve contacted Conchetta [Caristo], we’ve been chatting, Dyson [Heppell] and Luke [Bateman]. I really want Luke to win this, I think he’s in his element there.”
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Share this post