I’m a Celebrity: Who are Tony Bellew and Frankie Dettori, the jungle’s newest campmates?
Professional boxer and jockey legend join controversial politician Nigel Farage, actor Jamie Lynn Spears and presenter Josie Gibson in the Australian jungle
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Your support makes all the difference.I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is well and truly underway. After three nights of emotional upheaval, grisly trials and heated arguments, it has been announced that two new campmates have arrived in the jungle.
This time, the pair were named as camp coaches and led the rest of the contestants into battle in the Scarena during Thursday’s episode (23 November).
The two new campmates are professional boxer and Creed star Tony Bellew and legendary jockey Frankie Dettori.
The two sports stars join controversial former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, This Morning presenter Josie Gibson, JLS’s Marvin Humes and Jamie Lynn Spears, best known for being the younger sister of Britney Spears. You can find the full cast list here.
Follow our live coverage of I’m a Celebrity... as it happens, here.
Who is Tony Bellew?
Bellew, 40, is a former WBC cruiserweight champion from Liverpool. Though he’s had an impressive boxing career, you may know him best when he portrayed the fictional WBC Light Heavyweight Champion boxer Ricky Conlan in the Rocky spin-off film series Creed and Creed III.
Bellow’s character, Conlan, is the first major British character in Rocky/Creed franchise. In the film, he puts his title on the line to go up against Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan, in the ring.
He made his professional boxing debut in 2007 and in 2010, became the Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion until 2014.
Bellew announced his retirement in the ring following his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in 2018. He retired with a record of 30 wins from 34 professional bouts. However, since retiring from the ring, Bellew has been dabbling in TV appearances.
In 2020, Bellew took part in the Channel 4 reality TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins and in 2021, he joined the UK commentary team for DAZN, contributing to their boxing coverage. He will join the 2023 cast of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! as a camp leader as he takes on a coach role during group trials.
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Who is Frankie Dettori?
Dettori is a legendary Italian jockey based in the UK.
He has been British flat racing Champion Jockey three times but his proudest achievement was riding all seven winners on British Festival of Racing Day at Ascot Racecourse on 28 September 1996.
Dettori is no stranger to appearing on prime-time TV, since he appeared as a team captain on A Question of Sport from 2002 to 2004.
Last year, the jockey said he did not want to “end up like Ronaldo” and announced his decision to retire from the saddle at the end of 2023 after riding more than 3,300 winners.
With 21 British Classic successes and three champion jockey titles, Dettori said he was motivated to go out on his own terms after observing the way Cristiano Ronaldo has ended up on the bench at both Manchester United and Portugal.
“It was towards the end of the season,” Dettori told ITV Racing when revealing when he first considered retirement. “Not to make comparisons, but look at Cristiano Ronaldo, he was playing one minute and on the bench the next. I don’t want to end up like that.
“Where I’m struggling to get rides in the big races, at the moment, I still have good horses to ride, and I want to finish it like that.
“Next year, 2023, will be my final professional year as a jockey. It is something I have been thinking about for a while and what an appropriate day to tell the racing world that it is going to be my finale next year.
“My heart wants to carry on riding, but I have to use my brain, I just turned 52, next year I will be 53, I want to stop at the top, be competitive enough to do myself, my owners justice. I’m still in that bracket of being good. Like I said, it’s difficult, but it’s the right time.”
Dettori, like Bellew, will join the 2023 cast of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! as a camp leader as he takes on a coach role during group trials.
I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs Sunday to Friday at 9pm and Saturday at 9.30pm on ITV.
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