It’s a grudge that Kelly Brook was adamant she wouldn’t ever let go of. When, as she saw it, Ant and Dec pushed for her to get the sack from Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, she was so furious she vowed never to speak to them again.
She confided in me at the time that she thought they were snooty and didn’t want to work with her because of her glamour modelling.
But 16 years on she is to reunite with them on I’m A Celeb, which they host and in which she stars as a contestant when it begins tomorrow night.
It is likely to be a frosty reunion because it’s the first time she has come face to face with them since she was unceremoniously axed as a judge on the ITV talent show after just six days.
‘Kelly might be all smiles, but underneath she is a tough, tough woman who doesn’t take well to being crossed,’ a friend of the star tells me.
‘She doesn’t forget. It is going to make for great television.
Kelly Brook is due to reunite with Ant and Dec when she stars on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! which starts Sunday November 16
British TV presenting duo Ant and Dec are returning to present the 25th series of I’m A Celeb
‘She thinks Ant and Dec sneered at her for being a Page 3 girl, they didn’t think she had any talent.
‘She’s a down-to-earth working-class girl done good and she hates snobby behaviour. Woe betide Ant and Dec.
‘She’s already been telling journalists she can’t wait to see them again.’
ITV sources say there is a strategy for the ‘Kelly problem’: Rather than ignore it, Ant and Dec are considering making a joke of it – although Kelly, 45, is unlikely to see the funny side.
This isn’t the first time Ant and Dec have attempted to clear the air.
In their 2010 autobiography, Dec was candid about the feud, saying he could not understand why Kelly was hired as a fourth judge with Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Previously, there had been three.
She was axed within a week when the format was deemed too complex. It went back to four judges later, though, with Alesha Dixon and David Walliams joining Simon and Amanda.
Despite this, Kelly insisted Ant and Dec were behind her departure due to an awkward exchange. Dec wrote in their memoir, Ooh! What A Lovely Pair: ‘Kelly looked nervous, so I told her it was going to be great fun and to just relax.
‘She nodded, then looked at me and said, “And what do you do on the show?”. I looked at Simon, who was sat next to me, he turned to Kelly and said, “Kelly, you have seen the show, haven’t you?” To which she replied, “Yeah… well, bits”.
‘I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac, but the last person who said, “And what do you do?” was the Queen.’
They also said they were annoyed that they hadn’t been consulted about her signing.
Kelly hit back, saying: ‘There was nothing I could do in this country after Britain’s Got Talent. The people at ITV were telling me that I had upset Ant and Dec and that was it. I would love to have stayed on the show.
From left, the stars of Britain’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Kelly Brook, Piers Morgan and presenters Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly in 2009
‘I really felt it was working out. Ant and Dec had never been anything but pleasant to my face but, clearly, they didn’t want me on the show. Their egos are such that they were saying to themselves, “How dare she think she can come on to our show?”, and since then they’ve been very vocal about their displeasure.’
It isn’t just Ant and Dec who should watch out in the jungle, but her co-stars, too, because, Kelly, is not known for holding back when she’s annoyed.
I should know. In 2015 I spent the afternoon with Kelly at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles where she was starring in a sitcom on NBC that was being produced by Ellen DeGeneres.
Called One Big Happy, in which she played a British barmaid, it received much ridicule – especially from the British media.
Kelly was furious. She let rip in an email to me about the apparent sexism of the UK Press for lambasting her performance while fawning over James Corden, who was successfully hosting The Late Late Show at the time. She ranted that his show only got a quarter of her show’s viewers.
We arranged to meet. I arrived to find paparazzi outside the five-star hotel in the Hollywood Hills, and was mortified in case she thought I’d set it up. When I told her it wasn’t me, she said: ‘Yeah, I know. It was me.’
Also on her hit list is Britain’s Got Talent boss Simon Cowell, who’d hired her to bring a touch of glamour to his show, and whom Kelly also blames for her unceremonious dumping just days later.
She told me: ‘He’d turn up at 1pm when the judges had been told to get there for 9am. It was a joke, it was totally disrespectful to me, Amanda and Piers.
‘Kelly might be all smiles, but underneath she is a tough, tough woman who doesn’t take well to being crossed,’ a friend of the star tells me
‘He’d just rock up whenever he wanted to. It was his party and he did what he wanted. I had never known anything like it before.’
Kelly was also keen to stress that Cowell, 66, had approached her about being on the show. She said: ‘Everyone thought I chased Simon, desperate to be on the show, but… he called me the day before and asked if I’d do it.’
Also on the receiving end of her acid tongue during our interview was Jude Law, who approached us looking scruffy. When he went to kiss her, she said rather loudly: ‘Eugh, he f***ing stinks.’
Rugby star Danny Cipriani, whom she dated between 2008 and 2010 – and kicked out after he was caught cheating on her, was called every name under the sun.
ITV bosses might also want to watch out for her potty mouth. In our interview we discussed her colourful love life and she asked me: ‘Is there any gossip about me right now?’ ‘Well,’ I told her, ‘the word is you may be a lesbian.’
Kelly shrieked with laughter and went on to describe, in blush-inducing detail, just how much she loved being, well, heterosexual. I was dumbfounded.
Friends tell me she is going into the jungle to win – which they put down to her background. She grew up on a council estate in Rochester, Kent where her late father Ken, a scaffolder, worked hard to provide for his family.
Tears welled up as she spoke about her dad, who died of cancer in 2007 when she was in Strictly Come Dancing. She said: ‘Dad was a grafter. He taught me that you have to work twice as hard, twice as many hours as everyone else… to be the best.’
So, this time, there is no way Ant and Dec will get in the way of her bid to be queen of the jungle.
