Joel Dommett candidly opens up about his two-year-old son Wilde and his relationship with wife Hannah Cooper as the family head to Australia for new jungle spin-off show
He faced his own gruesome Bushtucker Trials back in 2016 and hosted I’m A Celebrity spin-off show Extra Camp for three years from 2017 to 2019. Now comedian and presenter Joel Dommett is heading back down under to present new jungle spin-off I’m A Celebrity… Unpacked and he tells us it’s a relief not to have to eat any weird bugs this time round.
Joel, 40, is bringing his wife, model Hannah Cooper, 36, and their two-year-old son Wilde along for the adventure. But despite the name, Joel admits their little man is as laid-back as they come. “He’s very chill, and I do realise we’re very lucky with that,” he says. “I suspect if we were to have another, they would be an absolute nightmare.”
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The presenter has taken to fatherhood like a duck to water. “Wilde is so fun. I just love hanging out with him,” he says. “It’s such a mad thing where I just feel like my wife’s given birth to a little best friend. It’s just the dream.”
While Joel, who also hosts The Masked Singer , admits he’s a tad “bored of singing the Postman Pat theme tune”, his son makes up for it by constantly making him laugh. “He’s obsessed with trucks but can’t say the word truck and instead says the word c**k, so that’s funny,” he reveals. “He just points at big trucks and says ‘big c**k’ really loud in the high street. It’s hilarious, while also being embarrassing for me and his mother.”
Joel and Hannah’s love story began back in 2016, when Hannah cheekily slid into his DMs after he finished as runner-up on I’m A Celebrity . They instantly hit it off and Joel popped the question a year later. They tied the knot in 2019 at a stunning beachfront ceremony in Mykonos. Welcoming baby Wilde a few years later was the perfect next chapter, Joel says.
Although he doesn’t have any big secrets when it comes to a happy marriage, he does believe that “honesty is key”. “I also think it’s taking time to speak to each other and properly communicating at the end of the day, which is difficult when you’re a parent,” he says.
Asked if the challenges of parenthood ever cause friction between them, he confesses, “Luckily, Hannah and I are pretty much on the same wavelength, but parenting is so all-consuming. The whole thing is hard, it’s just exhausting to be honest. We haven’t got the energy to fight, even if we wanted to!”
Almost a decade after his own jungle stint, when he shared the campsite with the likes of Larry Lamb, Carol Vorderman and eventual winner Scarlett Moffatt, Joel is feeling the full-circle moment as he returns to host the sister show.
“I’m really excited to be back. I can’t quite believe it’s coming up to 10 years since I did the jungle myself,” he says. “It’s really, really nice to round off those 10 years and to still be going back there after so long, it’s amazing. And seeing fresh people going in and seeing their enjoyment (and non-enjoyment as well)… it’s just so lovely to see it through their eyes.”
He sweetly describes his Unpacked co-host Kemi Rodgers as “so easy to work with”, and admits their show is much harder to create than it might appear on the telly.
“In reality, you’re travelling there in the mad weather, for a start. Last year we had crazy floods and you’re writing the show about a show that’s not finished yet. Also, there’s the time zone difference. I’m getting up at midnight and then working through the night until 10 o’clock in the morning.”
But he adds, “It’s genuinely an incredible team and it’s like a proper army operation to get that TV show into your living room. It’s really, really amazing.”
Joel believes I’m A Celeb is one of the absolute highlights of TV viewing throughout the year as it’s unlike any other show.
“What is amazing about it are the different people’s reactions to the trials and the hunger. They’re what make the show so special. You have certain people who take it in their stride and others who immediately say, ‘I’m a celebrity… get me out of here!’
“You have people who scream and others who just close their eyes and zone out. It just brings these celebrities out of their comfort zones and you see a side of them that you would never see on any other show. It’s so captivating and ridiculous and fun.”
Joking that his favourite contestant during his own stint was himself, he then admits with a giggle that his favourite campmate was one of his best friends, actor Adam Thomas. “He was the perfect campmate. He was so joyful and his laugh was so infectious, and he sort of kept the camp really buoyant and fun, but also had that side of vulnerability about him. That’s what I think is a perfect campmate, someone who shows that vulnerable side, but brings true joy at the same time.”
Would Joel be willing to step back in as a contestant in an All Stars series, if he were asked? “Never say never,” he says with a smile. “It would get me off my mobile phone for a while.”
Source: Mirror
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