Adam Thomas has made a heartbreaking confession about the emotional toll his time on I’m A Celebrity… South Africa took on him, revealing that he is now in therapy after feeling “broken” by David Haye’s behaviour in camp.
The Emmerdale star, 37, opened up on the latest episode of his At Home With The Thomas Bros podcast, where he reflected on how deeply the experience affected him. While Adam said he does not regret taking part in the ITV show, he admitted the ordeal changed him in ways he never expected.
He told brothers Scott and Ryan Thomas that although the jungle was “an amazing experience”, there were moments when he had “a bit of a tough time” with one campmate. That struggle, he said, has stayed with him long after filming ended.
“I know for a fact, I’m not the same person as I was when I went into the jungle, to when I came out. It’s changed me and that’s no over-exaggeration. It’s changed me. I’m in therapy now because of it,” Adam said.
He went on to admit the situation had deeply affected his mental health, saying: “It’s f***ed with me mentally because I just thought, ‘How is this happening? I’m a 37-year-old man.’ I’m like, ‘How am I letting some other person do this to me in here?’”
Adam, who lives with psoriatic arthritis, had a turbulent time in the jungle and was previously targeted by David after ruling himself out of a Bushtucker trial due to illness. In scenes that sparked a furious backlash from viewers, David branded him “useless” and said he did not “give a s**t” whether he was unwell or not.
The actor explained that what made the situation even harder was the fact there was no escape. On the outside, he said, he would have simply walked away from someone who treated him badly. But in camp, he felt trapped.
“I think, in a different environment, on the outside if this happened to you, you’d go, ‘Oh alright, he doesn’t like me, I’m going to leave the situation’, but because you’re in an environment like that, there’s nowhere to hide. You just have to grin and bear it,” he said.
Adam also shared that therapy helped him understand why he struggled to stand up for himself in those moments. He said he was told that he had a habit of putting everyone else before himself and avoiding drawing attention to his own pain.
“So I just took it,” he admitted. “I just took it, and took it, and took it, until eventually it got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m literally at breaking point here.’”
At one stage, the pain became too much. Adam recalled confronting David directly and demanding an apology, telling him: “I can’t talk to you anymore bro, if you’re not going to apologise for what you did.”
He said he listed all the things David had done, only for the boxer to reply: “I was trying to teach you a lesson.” Adam’s response was immediate and firm: “I don’t need a lesson off you bro.”
Becoming emotional as he looked back on the experience, Adam said David had been “mindf***ing him constantly”, to the point where he began isolating himself from the rest of camp. He admitted that when David was finally voted out, it felt like “a weight had lifted”.
Despite the raw pain he described, Adam also revealed there has since been some form of closure between them. He confirmed David later apologised and insisted that beneath the tough exterior, there is another side to him.
“The guy has got a heart of gold. He has, deep down. I know he gives off this bravado but deep down, I know he’s a good guy. He really opened up to me, explained why he is the way he is,” Adam said.
His emotional account has now cast a harsh new light on one of the show’s most uncomfortable storylines — and revealed just how much of that pain followed him long after he left the jungle.
