I'm A Celebrity contestants removed from castle and show is taken off air amid Storm Arwen

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly present I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
(Image credit: ITV)

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! has been thrown into yet more chaos as Storm Arwen has forced the celebrity contestants to be removed from the castle. 

In the wake of the ongoing covid-19 crisis, ITV producers secured Gwrych Castle for a second year running—meaning this year's batch of celebrities have swapped sunny Australia for wet and windy Wales for their stay at Gwrych Castle.

If you're wondering: where is I'm A Celebrity castle, it's near Abergele in Conwy, North Wales. And this weekend the Grade I listed 19th century building has taken a battering thanks to the brutal conditions caused by Storm Arwen.

A photo posted by on

The weather conditions are so extreme that the celebrities have been removed from the castle and are said to be individually isolating so as to remain in a covid-19 bubble.

A statement released by ITV said, "Whilst we get the production base back up and running after suffering technical issues due to the storm, we have removed the celebrities from the castle."

It comes after the show was cancelled this weekend due to "technical difficulties" and Ant and Dec were forced to pre-record their live-links for the first time in the show's 19 year history in order to keep staff safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG8DwxcxNaw

This isn't the first crisis the ITV team have had to deal with as just days ago Richard Madeley was forced to leave the show after he was rushed to hospital in the middle of the night due to having a "funny turn".

While Richard, 65, was given a "clean bill of health" after just 90 minutes in A&E, he wasn't allowed to return to the castle because of covid restrictions.

The Richard and Judy star is "gutted" to have left so early and told Ant and Dec, "If it wasn't for COVID, I'd still be in the game. I'm gutted. I'm gutted, I really am."

Credit: Getty

He also recorded a message for his campmates. "My adventure is over. I just want to say how much I love you, you know I mean that and how much I'm grateful to you for everything you've said and done for me over the past few days and I'm going to set up that WhatsApp group we spoke about for when you come out," he said.

"We can all talk to each other again and hopefully meet up. Anyway, I'll be watching over the next few weeks and I wish you all the love and luck in the world, I can't wait to see who wins."

Celebrity writer

Georgia is a Celebrity and Royal Writer working across GoodTo and Woman & Home, and the Director and Founder of communications company Farq Media. Prior to this she was Online Editor at New! Magazine – managing all of their digital content and social media accounts. Where she interviewed all of the hottest reality TV stars and spent far too much time commuting to London. She trained at Nottingham Trent University – where she achieved First Class Honours in Print Journalism whilst juggling copious amounts of work experience, freelance writing, blogging and having far too much fun with the dance society.