I'm A Celebrity contestant Nella Rose has been defended after an old tweet has resurfaced.
The YouTuber is currently appearing on the ITV show, which airs on Virgin Media in Ireland, but has faced severe backlash after her clash with First Dates star Fred Sirieix on Tuesday night. Nella felt "disrespected" and "offended" by comments Fred unwittingly made about her family losses. Nella, who lost her dad in 2020 and her mum when she was just 19, didn't take kindly to Fred's apology and told the First Dates star they will "not be friends" during their time together Down Under.
Viewers were left divided by her comments as some rushed to Nella's defence and reminded others that the young star is still dealing with the grief of losing both her parents at such a young age. However, others thought she had gone too far with her remarks to Fred. Since their row, an old tweet from Nella has resurfaced.
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She reposted a tweet of DJ Tim Westwood, who has previously "strongly" denied any wrongdoing after being accused of five sexual assaults against women, dancing with a younger woman in a club. She wrote: "This man makes me sick, he’s old enough to be her dad." Many have criticised Nella for using the phrase after she told Fred it had upset her that he'd said he was old enough to be hear dad.
However, many came to Nella's defence as one said: "Depends how you use it. In person is different from in text as a comment." Another pointed out Nella's post came from 2019 and wrote: "How long did it take to find that? Apparently her Dad passed in 2020. So maybe it didn’t affect he until then."
A third commented: "People don’t realise simple ‘innocent’ phrases can be triggering. People will say to me ‘I should talk to my Dad more’ and that phrase is enough to set me off and while I understand there’s no malice behind it it’s still triggering. Let’s all just have grace with #nella."
Nella revealed on the show: "Last night after dinner Fred made a comment about him basically how he could be my dad. I took offence to that because one of the first conversations we had together was me opening up about the fact that my dad’s passed away," before the row was shown to viewers of the programme.
During the furious row, Nella fumed: "You know that my mum’s dead, and you know that my dad’s dead. You know that, right? I’ve come to find out that every time I wanna get creative around the fire, or I want to have something my way, my own food that I am entitled to, my way, you tend to get an attitude, right?"
She said: "I don’t want to eat no food that you’re cooking, don’t talk to me, you stay over there, I stay over here and we can live." Fred apologised to her and said: "I am unaware that you felt offended. I am unaware that what I said would lead to this conversation, I only said that in a way because I am older than you, I am 51 and you’re 26."
Nella has received support from Janet Street Porter, who said on Loose Women : "But he was a weirdo to her. In her defence, I found Fred incredibly patronising. He's not serving food in a restaurant now, he's not dealing with difficult customers. I can see that what he said to her could offend her, and also looking at her back story, her parents came from the Congo and went to Belgium. Her parents both died within a few months of each other."
Jane then chimed in: "But that's not Fred's fault," whilst Janet went on to add: "It's not Fred's fault and he will not be aware of it - but that would inform how she reacts to him. And also, I would hate to see - as a result of this - she gets voted out of the camp. To me, to make the show work, we need people like her. I'm not saying that in a patronising way. I think she has a voice that other people don't have, but I think Fred is more of the same frankly."
While Nella has also been branded 'hypocritical' by ITV fans after an unearthed social media clip has emerged following her row with Fred. Taking to X to call out the I'm A Celebrity star, the person said: " Nella Rose out here calling Mitch from kick game 'daddy' for flirting banter but yeah too fresh for Fred to pass a throw away comment init? #ImACeleb #NellaRose #ImACelebrity "
In response to the now viral clip, some viewers hit back at the Twitter user, claiming they were were 'reaching'. "What a reach. Complete different situation," one insisted. While another agreed: "What? This is a total different situation. She meant this as a joke. People just love hating on successful women."
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