ITV has announced that Lady Colin Campbell has left its reality television series I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here ahead of an elimination vote – but why was she such a controversial character on the show?
According to a statement on the ITV website, the outspoken socialite and royal biographer, known for "locking horns" with her fellow contestants, was forced to leave "on medical grounds". No further details have been released, but the scheduled elimination vote on the show has been called off.
The statement added that Lady Campbell will be missed by Kieron Dyer, the football player with whom she struck up an unlikely friendship on the show.
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But will she be missed by audiences? And why was she such a divisive character throughout the series?
The 66-year-old contestant, whose name is Georgia Arianna, was born in Jamaica to a wealthy mercantile family. She was mistakenly raised as a boy, due to a genital malformation, but had corrective surgery at 21. Her title comes from her brief marriage to Lord Colin Campbell in the 1970s.
Before I'm A Celebrity, Campbell was best known for her books about members of the royal family, including Princess Diana and the Queen, which have also been attacked for making unverified claims.
Lady C became a controversial figure on I'm a Celebrity because of her clashes with other contestants, reports the Daily Mail. She insulted many of her fellow campmates, particularly Tony Hadley, whom she called a "slob" and "the biggest bore I have ever met", and Duncan Bannatyne, whom she called "a vain old goat".
Another former campmate, Yvette Fielding, accused her of bullying, and said her worst moments were edited out.
The outspoken and, at times, downright rude Lady C "cemented herself in the show's history as one of the most memorable characters of all times, for all the wrong reasons", says Anna Howell on Unreality TV. But that's what made her "one of the (sadistic) nation's firm favourites".
Everyone knows the way this show works, says Howell. "The Great British public like to see their I'm a Celebrity camp mates squirm," she adds, so anyone who causes drama and chaos seems certain to remain in the show as long as the public vote allows, and her sudden departure will cause disappointment.
Yes, she will be missed, says Rupert Hawksley in the Daily Telegraph. That is not to say she was likeable, he admits, and after referring to the entire viewing public as "oiks" on live television, she was unlikely to win.
But whatever your opinion of Lady Campbell, says Hawksley, she made for "compelling" television. "Be in no doubt, the Australian jungle will be a duller place without her."
I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here airs tonight at 8.30pm on ITV1.
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