Celebrity Chef and The Weekly’s Food Writer, Julie Goodwin enters the wild as one of the newest intruders in Ten’s reality TV show, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
Goodwin, who quietly arrived in South Africa last week, is joined by a second intruder, cricketer Freddie Flintoff, as they are welcomed into the constraints of Kruger National Park.
By now, both viewers and existing competitors have learnt to expect the unexpected, as players face confronting challenges and cringe-worthy tasks – often involving live creepy-crawlies.
They also get to enjoy a daily feast of beans with a side of rice – not the most exciting thing on the menu for a passionate foodie.
“I’m terrified about the food element,” Goodwin, 44, has confessed.
“A few years back I tried this no-carb and no-sugar diet. I was a nightmare. I dropped a lot of weight really quickly but I was miserable. I’ll probably struggle with the rice and beans.”
Goodwin, winner of MasterChef in 2009, has been watching the series with her three children who “cannot wait to vote for me to eat disgusting things”.
“I don’t see the point in throwing yourself into something like this and then just saying, ‘I’m not going to do anything yucky’,” Goodwin says. “So I’ve challenged myself to not turn down any challenge.”
“[I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!]is a massive adventure of course. And the fact that at the end of it we get to raise money for charity as well, that’s a real bonus.”
Goodwin, Flintoff and the remaining seven contestants will battle it out for an attractive $100,000 donation as prize money.
Goodwin has nominated Cure for MND Australia as her charity of choice, which researches and supports the estimated 1400 Australians living with motor neurone disease, a condition which affects the nerve cells controlling the muscles that enable us to carry out specific movements.
The show attracted 1.199 million viewers when it premiered – understood to be the biggest launch of a new reality series since MasterChef in 2009, of which Julie was also a contender.
I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! airs Sunday at 6.30pm and Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Network Ten.
