I’m A Celebrity set broken into and ‘intruder’ removed

An intruder was removed from the castle set of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, according to ITV.

It is understood the incident happened earlier in the week, before the show was forced to pre-record an episode on Friday due to poor weather conditions brought on by Storm Arwen.

A statement from the programme said: “A security breach was identified and an intruder was removed from the location with immediate effect.

“The safety of both our celebrities and our production crew remains our primary concern.”

Presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – known as Ant and Dec – had been set to broadcast live from Gwrych Castle in North Wales before severe storm warnings forced ITV to pre-record an episode of the show for the first time.

The pair posted a video from outside the castle ahead of the programme, in which the roar of the wind in the background was palpable.

“You’ve probably heard we’ve had to record the show a bit earlier tonight because of the winds here at Storm Arwen,” said Mr Donnelly.

“It’s bad, isn’t it, it’s really windy,” said Mr McPartlin. “You can hear it, it’s rattling the tent, it might blow this away, so we’ve got to get it done and get out of here.”

“It’s due to get worse later so everyone is afraid that the satellite is going to go down and all of that, so it’s a bit risky to do a live show, so we’re going to have to do it recorded tonight, which is the first time we’ve ever done that,” Mr Donnelly added.

He said: “It’s very, very windy but even worse than that it was lentils for lunch, so Ant is a bit windy as well.”

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This year’s I’m a Celeb series has already been disrupted after TV presenter Richard Madeley was forced to withdraw after breaking the show’s COVID bubble.

The 65-year-old was taken to hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning after falling ill and had to pull out because of the visit.

The journalist and broadcaster later said he was “gutted” that he could not return to the set and felt “fit as a fiddle”.

Normally held in Australia, the show was moved to Wales last year due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.