Former TOWIE icon Gemma Collins has opened up about how her ex-boyfriend attacked her mere hours before she entered the I’m A Celebrity jungle in 2014.
The TV star, 43, spoke about the “pain and turmoil” she was going through prior to the show.
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Gemma Collins on domestic abuse
Back in 2014, Gemma appeared in I’m A Celebrity. However, the reality star only lasted 72 hours in the jungle before quitting.
Now, 10 years on, Gemma has opened up about the turmoil that was going on in her personal life just hours before she did the show. The star was “beaten up” by her boyfriend at the time the night before she did the show.
“I was beaten up the night before I went into the jungle. I was knocked out, I was attacked and I was robbed,” she said on the Mail’s Everything I Know About Me podcast.
“The police were at my house at 5 in the morning and the Addison Lee was outside at 6 o’clock,” she then continued.
She explained that when she was on the show, her “body was in bits” thanks to the attack.
Gemma Collins talks about her ex
The reality star then continued, saying: “I was in a lot of pain. I should have pressed charges. But I was young, stupid, and obviously then famous. I didn’t want to bring too much attention to it.
She then went on to say: “I stupidly got back with the person. I remember that being really stressful.”
I should have pressed charges. But I was young, stupid, and obviously then famous. I didn’t want to bring too much attention to it.
Back in 2017, Gemma spoke about what her ex did to her before she went into the jungle.
“I was really severely beaten up by my partner the night before I went into the jungle, and not many people know,” she said at the time.
“My partner beat me to within an inch of my life, and when I went in there, I was really badly beaten from my neck down.”
Gemma’s ex was jailed in 2012 for drug-related charges. He was taken into custody again in 2014 for breaching the conditions of his previous licence. In 2019, he was slapped with 21 months in prison after breaking his new partner’s arm and threatening to kill her.
Gemma on terminating pregnancy in her early twenties
Elsewhere in the podcast, Gemma opened up about the time she terminated a pregnancy after finding out her baby was intersex.
Gemma explained that when she went to the doctors for a check up, she was informed that her baby was a “hermaphrodite”.
‘Hermaphrodite’ is no longer a term that is used. Instead, the proper medical term is intersex. People who are intersex have genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit into a male/female sex binary.
“I mean, you can imagine, I didn’t know what the word was. I had to look it up. I’d never been taught about ‘hermaphrodites’. Didn’t know what they were. Didn’t know that they existed. So that was a real shock,” she said.
“They had advised me, ‘You need to have a termination, because this baby’s not going to be right’” she then added.
She then said that it was “sad”. But added that it “wasn’t meant to be”.
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