Fred Sirieix’s First Dates co-stars Cici Coleman and Laura Tott have spoken out after his explosive argument with Nella Rose on I’m A Celebrity.
The camp was thrown into chaos when Fred, 51, commented on his age to Nella, 26, saying that he was old enough to be her dad.
The following morning, YouTube star Nella revealed how upset she was, after having lost both her mum and her dad at a young age.
Accusing Fred of being ‘stupid’ after her blunder, she labelled him ‘disrespectful’, while he apologised profusely for the unknowing mistake.
Since the row aired, his partner has spoken out, saying his intention would ‘never be to upset anyone’, and now his co-stars have echoed the sentiment.
Appearing on Thursday’s This Morning with Alison Hammond and Rylan Clark, who branded the row ‘so uncomfortable to watch’, Cici began: ‘I think, look you’re in a pressure cooker with 10 people constantly, you’re not sleeping or eating, there’s a lot going on, this type of behaviour is going to happen.
‘They are going to have moments where things are misconstrued, misunderstood and it’s normal, things will happen.’
‘It’s just a misunderstanding,’ Laura added. ‘It’s really sad how it happened, and it’s just so hard to watch.’
‘My heart broke for him,’ she went on, saying: ‘I know how personally he would have taken it, he’ll be so upset that he thinks he’s offended her.’
Fred hadn’t realised he had made a faux pas until the next morning when Nella ignored him and told him to ‘leave me alone’.
The Fred, Gordon and Gino star, taken aback by her response, asked her what he’d done wrong, with Nella hitting out: ‘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 he had an ‘attitude’ about the fact he told her, ‘You know I could be your dad, right?’
‘I don’t care how you said it to me, it’s disrespectful and I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to be around you,’ Nella said. ‘I only allow people to disrespect me once. You hurt my feelings. I was very upset… you keep trying to speak to me when I don’t want to speak to you.
‘I would rather stay away from you, I don’t want to eat your food, I don’t want to talk to you. We can just live, you live on that side, I live on this side.’
Fred apologised profusely, insisting he didn’t know he offended her with the comment and ‘only said that because I am older than you, I am 51 and you’re 26.’
He added: ‘I made a mistake and I said something and I offended you, I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry you feel like this.’
Nella was having none of it, saying ‘you’re not going to little girl me.’
She said she would accept his apology but ‘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.’
Tensions have yet to cool down in the camp, with two new arrivals set to join the likes of Jamie Lynn Spears and Nigel Farage soon.
I’m A Celebrity continues on ITV and ITVX tomorrow at 9pm.
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