Declan Donnelly's secret 2am medical dash after I'm A Celeb spider bite

4 September 2020, 10:54

Dec was left terrified when he was bitten by a spider during an I'm A Celeb trial.

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! will look a little different this year, with the stars heading to a castle in Wales, instead of Australia.

But while this year’s contestants will miss out on the sunny Jungle weather, there is one good thing about not going Down Under - no poisonous spiders.

And one man who will be pleased about avoiding dangerous creepy crawlies is host Declan Donnelly, who once had to be rushed to the medics after being bitten during a trial.

Opening up about the terrifying incident in his and Ant McPartlin’s new autobiography Once Upon a Tyne: Our Story Celebrating 30 Years Together On Telly, Dec said he got ‘huge red warts’ after a spider nipped him.

He explained: “Course, it’s not just the celebs who have to endure trial when they’re in Australia, we have had our fair share of challenges to deal with.

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“My spider bite. It happened down at the trial clearing, appropriately enough.

“I woke up the next morning, at 2am, as normal and the spider bite had blown up.

“It looked like I had huge red warts on my finger and I was told I needed to get it looked at when I arrived on site.”

When the medics then tried to ‘pop it with a needle’, the 44-year-old was left in excruciating pain and had to be given an oxygen mask.

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Ant, 44, added: “When I came back 15 minutes later, the door to Dec’s and my office was shut.

“Someone said, ‘Dec’s taken a turn for the worse’ and, when the door opened, I saw three medics standing in a circle, looking down on the floor.

“One of them was holding an oxygen tank with the mask clamped around Dec’s mouth and nose, while another held his legs in the air.”

Luckily, the oxygen was just to bring Dec round and he was absolutely fine, as the presenter added: “I’m not very good with the sight of blood and I nearly passed out.”

Meanwhile, this year’s celebrities are currently getting ready to face their fears in the allegedly haunted castle in rural north Wales.

The spooky ruins have undergone extensive maintenance work to make it safe, and it has now been closed to the public last week and will not open again until after filming has finished.

ITV are understood to have paid £1million to use the castle for six weeks.

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