Highest paid I’m A Celebrity stars ever as ITV bosses get out the chequebook

The scent of cockroach dung and the taste of camel anus wafting through the air can only mean one thing: I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is nearly back.

And with Ant McPartlin once again joining his pal Declan Donnelly to co-host the hit ITV show, this year's series could be bigger and better than ever.

But what do the stars of the show get in return for three weeks of humiliation, near-starvation and the constant threat of falling in the dunny?

Cold hard cash, that's what.

But you might be surprised by just how little – or how much – some of the celebrities earn from their stint in the jungle.

Bosses regularly spend six-figure sums trying to lure big names Down Under, while other stars are happy to do it for as little as £25,000.

The 2013 series was considered to be the lowest paying one of all time , with bosses shelling out a relatively miserly £100,000 for winner Kian Egan.

Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington got £80,000 followed by TOWIE's Joey Essex on £60,000.

Model Amy Willerton – who hooked up with Joey in the jungle – earned £25,000, less than half what Helen Flanagan was believed to have received the previous year.

Snooker champion Steve Davis took home just £30,000 and Prince of Bel Air star turned Strictly judge Alfonso Ribeiro signed up for a slim cheque of £40,000.

Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter, who plays Chas Dingle, and former chat show host Matthew Wright both took home £50,000 from that series.

But who has been among the highest-paid I'm A Celebrity contestants? Let's take a look…

Noel Edmonds

Noel was the surprise bombshell arrival in the I'm A Celebrity 2018 camp, having jetted in after the 10 original campmates had settled in.

As the Mirror exclusively revealed at the time, the zany Deal Or No Deal host pocketed a whopping £600,000 for signing up – but bosses didn't get nearly enough of their money's worth.

Noel was the first celebrity to be voted out, just nine days after he was parachuted in.

Despite his brief appearance, Noel still managed to ruffle feathers when he was declared Emperor of the camp and started bossing his fellow stars around.

His curt exchanges with Nick Knowles sparked rumours of a feud – while his long-simmering beef with temporary IAC host Holly Willoughby came to the fore after he left the jungle.

Harry Redknapp

The reigning King of the Jungle won hearts and minds across the nation in IAC 2018 for his poignant devotion to wife Sandra Redknapp, his willingness to get stuck in with the camp tasks, and for always retaining his sense of humour.

He was a huge signing for ITV bosses, and was lured by a £500,000 cheque in exchange for giving up all his creature comforts.

Harry, who had professed to never watching the show in his life, lost over a stone during his time in the jungle – but was more than rewarded by being voted the winner by jubilant fans.

And bookies had to pay out £10million to viewers who had backed him from the very beginning – making Harry the most popular I'm A Celebrity star of all time.

Amir Khan

Boxing champ Amir set records in 2017 for being the show's highest-paid celebrity to date – a record that was broken just 12 months later.

The Olympic boxer trousered £400,000 for his jungle stint, which was marred by allegations of bullying against radio presenter Iain Lee.

Amir hit headlines when he talked Iain into taking the blame for them snaffling the strawberries won in the Dingo Dollar challenge.

He allowed the other campmates to think Iain had been the brains behind the evil deed, and threw him under the bus despite being caught red-handed on camera.

Amir later shamelessly confessed to Ant and Dec that he'd nicked the strawberries because he knew nobody would suspect him over Iain.

Katie Price

Katie remains the only celeb to have done IAC twice – once in 2004, where she famously met her first husband Peter Andre, then again in 2009 for the princely fee of £450,000.

The glamour model out-earned every single other star in the camp that year, with everyone else on £65,000.

But she had it written into her contract that she'd be in the jungle for a week less than her campmates, prompting accusations of favouritism by ITV bosses.

*I'm A Celebrity 2019 returns next month to ITV

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