I’m a Celebrity’s Fatima Whitbread shares painful memories of growing up in children’s home
Athlete remembers asking one of her carers to be her mum
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In a sneak peek of tonight’s I’m a Celebrity… South Africa, sportswoman Fatima Whitbread can be seen tearfully sharing memories of growing up in a children’s home.
A clip shows the Olympic athlete, 62, who is a contestant on the spinoff series currently airing on ITV, reflecting on her childhood.
“In the children’s home when we were kids, we always had an assigned job and we were always in that routine,” she said.
“I had two people in my life, Corrie and Auntie Ray. Auntie Ray was an East End girl. I’d be really sad when she went off duty. One day I decided to pick all the daffodils and knock on her door and ask her, ‘Will you be my mum?’
“And she said, ‘Fats, I’ve got to be mum to all you kids, so I cant always be here.’”
Whitbread begins to cry, adding: “She taught me a lot about looking after the other kids and how you give and you receive.
“You’ve got to have a star in every child’s life.”
Later, she says: “There has been a lot of history I had forgotten about in my life, and when I spoke about it, it brought it all back to the surface again and brought a tear to my eye.”
Whitbread is currently on the show with other former favourites from I’m a Celeb’s history, including Carol Vorderman and Georgia “Toff” Toffolo.
On Monday (1 May), it was announced that the all-star version of the popular survival show would include celebrities deciding the next person to leave the programme.
Since this version of the show is not filmed live, the usual public vote does not take place.
After a secret ballot, Amir Khan became the first all-star contestant to get the boot via camp decision on Tuesday’s episode (2 May).
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