I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! spin-off host, Joel Dommett, has apologised to viewers after ‘overstepping the mark’ during his Unpacked show last week
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! has been forced to issue an apology after viewers were left outraged following its spin-off show last week. Fans were shocked after host, Joel Dommett, made a comment about shanking – a slang term for stabbing – during Tuesday’s night’s episode of Unpacked.
Referring to campmate, Ruby Wax, snaffling a bag of Liquorice Allsorts while the other celebrities shared sweets, Joel, 40, said, laughing: “If someone stole my Haribo, I’d shank them”, before asking: “Is that alright to say on telly? Is that too much?”
Looking somewhat perturbed, I’m A Celeb host, Declan Donnelly, 50, replied: “It was a little too much, you’ve overstepped the mark”, with Joel replying: “I’m sorry about that.”
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He later followed up on his apology saying he regretted his choice of words, posting in a statement: “I would like to once again apologise to anyone offended by the language used in Tuesday’s show.
“I realised the error in the moment and immediately apologised live on air.
“This was not a pre-written joke and I would never make light of such a serious issue as knife crime.”
ITV added: “We would apologise to anyone offended by the language used in Tuesday’s show.
“Joel recognised this unfortunate choice of language in the moment and immediately apologised to viewers.”
Referring to the “unfortunate choice of language”, Patrick Green, CEO of The Ben Kinsella Trust, a charity educating young people on the dangers of knife crime, urged Joel to be more careful in the future.
He said: “I am sure that when Joel made this comment, he was not intending to cause offence or trivialise knife crime, as indicated by his immediate apology.
“However, it does highlight how knife crime has become so ingrained in our society that it has entered everyday language, when in reality it is something we should strongly oppose and never joke about.
“Knife crime is not a trivial matter—it takes young lives and leaves families and communities devastated.”
Meanwhile, Martin Crosser, who tragically lost his son, Charlie, in 2023 when he was stabbed at a party, pointed out there was “nothing to joke about with knife crime”, telling The Sun: “Charlie died by losing every milligram of blood in his body – a ruptured bowel, ruptured spleen, he’d been stabbed in the heart.
“He had two traumatic cardiac arrests and died of irreversible brain damage.
“There’s nothing to joke about with knife crime. There really isn’t.”
* For more information about the Ben Kinsella Trust, please visit the website.
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