Rachel Hunter has a warning for her remaining campmates following her shock elimination from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!: it may all be kumbaya and happy families now, but it’s only a matter of time before alliances see the campmates turn on each other.
“I warned them when I left, I was like, ‘If this is an alliance game, all of your sweet little talk and camaraderie is going to get shattered pretty fast,’ because it’s going to come down to strategy, and it’s going to come down to alliance, which triggers a whole different nature in us. Because we’re competing at that point, and it’s one-on-one, and there’s one winner,” she tells TV WEEK.
“I’ve been on reality shows where there is an alliance, and I was like, ‘This whole situation in here of your peace, love and happiness that’s happening, it’s all gonna get crushed.’ Whether that does or not, I don’t know, because I haven’t seen the rest of the show, so I just wanted to put that warning out before I left!”
Why was Rachel Hunter eliminated from I’m A Celebrity?
The legendary New Zealand model, 56, says she’s unsure whether she was chosen for the elimination challenge because her campmates saw her as a threat or perhaps she “wasn’t giving as much as the group wanted from me”.
Either way, after getting over her initial hurt, she reconciled with the fact that it’s just part of the game.
“We were all going along quite happily and we were all forming these bonds, and then when push comes to shove, like anything in life, when you are that one who’s chosen to go… it just shows you our human side of like, ‘Why?!’” she explains.
“But to me, it just triggered the alliance thing. And I’m not very good with alliances, I don’t have that strategy so much.”
Who was Rachel Hunter closest to on I’m A Celebrity?
Rachel formed close friendships with many of her fellow contestants – most notably Mia Fevola and Rebekah Elmaloglou.
But perhaps the most surprising friendship to come out of Rachel’s time in the jungle was with former Married At First Sight star Cyrell Paule.
“I love Cyrell, I just loved her,” she enthuses. “She says what she feels and I think that can be quite confronting, maybe.
“But the one thing that I noticed when she was in that Elephant Graveyard – that was her entry point and then she came to us – I remember they hadn’t eaten, well, they’d only eaten beans and rice or whatever, but the way she sat down and wasn’t even like, ‘Oh, you need to feed me first.’
“She’s very fair but she’s a go-getter, and I love those people that are very clear on their nature. It’s a beautiful quality. Some people like it, some people don’t, but yeah, I like that.”
Is I’m A Celebrity rigged?
With this season being the first that has been pre-recorded, the internet is flooded with chatter that challenges have been rigged. Not so, insists Rachel.
“Oh no, absolutely not,” she tells us. “No, not at all. I don’t feel like that whatsoever. I know someone spoke somewhere about how I was only meant to be in there for 10 days or whatever, contractually. And it’s like, no. We were all in it to win.
“As far as the challenges being rigged, no, I would highly not think that would be the case – especially when you see the emotions of people when they’re confronted with those challenges.
“You can’t deny the emotion that is going through them. The only thing is choosing who goes into the elimination – that was an audience vote [when the show was live], obviously.”
Why did Rachel Hunter go on I’m A Celebrity?
Having previously turned down the chance to go on I’m A Celebrity in another country, Rachel says she had embraced her year of being a “yes woman” when this latest opportunity presented itself.
“When do you ever get an opportunity to do something like this?” she says.
Despite her early departure, she has no regrets about her time on the show.
“I loved it, it was amazing,” she says with a smile. “Every single person in there, I just absolutely adore them.
“The beautiful part of it, that I hope the audience gets from this, whether you’re a world-renowned singer, whether you’re a reality star, the ultimate thing about this is we’re all human beings. There’s no hierarchy of who is more famous, because the ability for the show to bring in that human quality that we’re all just human beings experiencing life is, for me, what that message was.”
As for being so candid about her life – opening up about her whirlwind relationship with ex-husband Rod Stewart among other things – Rachel says that having been in the public eye for so many years and been so open already about her story, she was more than comfortable sharing with her campmates.
“Some people will know me from my early days of coming to Australia, doing Vogue, doing Harper’s Bazaar, doing all that. Some people will know me from my marriage. Some people know me from [the 2003 Fountains Of Wayne video clip] “Stacey’s Mom”, some people know me from going into this yoga, spiritual journey. So there’s all different kind of facets, especially when you get to a certain age.”
Who’s going to win I’m A Celebrity 2026?
While she’ll have to watch along with the rest of us to see who wins this season of I’m A Celebrity, Rachel has her favourites.
“I think Rebekah or Mia, obviously. Then the other part of me goes, is Luke [Bateman] going to be the one? Or Conchetta [Caristo], too. They’re all in it, they’re exposing everything and trying everything and pushing themselves. So let’s see what happens. But I mean, Conchetta is amazing too.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.30pm, and Sunday at 7pm. Watch + Stream Free on 10.
