Daily Mirror Associate Editor Tom Bryant reflects on spending time with Danny Jones in Australia after winning I'm a Celebrity - and says the backlash over that kiss needs to stop
After three long, wet weeks in the I’m a Celebrity rainforest, Danny Jones only had one thing on his mind when he finally emerged victorious. “I’ve missed Georgia’s birthday and left her to move house by herself, so I’ve got some serious making up to do,” he told me.
At the time, it was just a lighthearted aside from the newly-crowned King of the Jungle. But fast-forward four-months and he’s got considerably more making-up to do after being caught kissing his campmate Maura Higgins at 3am at a BRIT Awards bash.
It’s a scenario which has left him both utterly mortified and deeply sorry for the spotlight that it’s cast on Georgia, and their young son. After spending the afternoon in the company of the star in Australia after leaving the jungle - the only journalist to do so - I can only imagine the hurt he will be feeling right now.
To say Danny was obsessed about his family is an understatement. Time and time again as we talked about his jungle heroics, he often steered the conversation back to wife Georgia, and how proud he was of her.
apology for Maura Higgins kiss
“I’ve never been away from Georgia that long,” he said at one point, growing emotional. “I’ve missed everything about her…not just the love, but her backing, her advice, her encouragement. Just everything.”
They weren’t just empty words, or a cynical soundbite. I saw the chemistry between them up close in the private confines of the Marriott Hotel, in Surfer’s Paradise, where all the contestants, and their friends and family, were put up by ITV.
Away from the cameras, it’s fair to say the feeling was most definitely mutual. “She told me how proud she was of me and I just cried,” he later told me, revealing also how he was whisking the family off on holiday in Australia rather than flying back with the other celebrities.
It was a picture of marital bliss and one so at odds with the drama playing out in the wake of his BRITs misdemeanor. Make no mistake, Danny will be the first to admit he has been a fool.
Those that saw him that night say he was already “unsteady on his feet” at the ceremony itself, even before he made his way to the fateful Universal party.
That’s not to excuse what he did...but we need to be honest. This wasn’t some clandestine affair being conducted away from prying eyes.
Instead it was a drunken, fleeting kiss in full view of hundreds of guests, and crucially, one eagle-eyed journalist armed with a camera phone. When it comes to celebrity cheating scandals, this is very much bottom rung of the ladder stuff.
Not that you would have guessed it from the vitriol of the subsequent fall-out. Yes they made a mistake - a very public one - but dear God, don’t we all sometimes make mistakes sometimes. Especially after a few drinks.
For Danny, and Maura for that matter, to be obliterated online in the manner they have is totally over the top, and a sad indictment of society today.
The situation got even more preposterous with anonymous “friends” claiming Georgia was angry at being asked to “parade publicly at her husband’s request” after they were photographed together.
But I’m assured this narrative - effectively painting Georgia as a downtrodden wife at the mercy of a husband trying to save his career - couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Trust me Georgia is very much her own person and wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do,” a confidante told me.
Then there were reports she upped sticks and “moved out” of the family home to live with her friend Rose Mahon. Friends tell me she wanted to “decompress” after a highly stressful few days, and was always coming home.
“This wasn’t some grand gesture where she suddenly packed her bags and left, it was just a girlie few nights at a close pal’s flat. Yes, she wanted some space, but she is home now, and while things are still fragile, they are trying to work things through.”
Whether they can remains to be seen. But after spending time with Danny, I’m convinced he’ll be trying his damnedest...
