The Masked Singer host is taking on hosting duties for brand-new jungle spin-off series I’m A Celebrity…Unpacked – and he’s bringing his wife, Hannah Cooper and their son along
Almost a decade on from facing his own gruesome Bushtucker Trials, comedian and presenter Joel Dommett is heading back to the jungle – but this time, he says, with a note of relief, he won’t be the one eating weird bugs. The Masked Singer host is taking on hosting duties for brand-new jungle spin-off series I’m A Celebrity…Unpacked – and as he tells OK! Magazine, he’s bringing his wife, model Hannah Cooper, 36, and their two-year-old along for the ride.
The couple welcomed son Wilde in September 2023, but despite the name, Joel admits with a grin that their little man is as laid-back as they come, so shouldn’t be too phased by his jungle adventures. “He’s very chill. And I do realise, we’re very lucky with that. And I suspect if we were to have another, they would be absolute nightmares!”, he laughs.
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And Joel, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, seems to have taken to fatherhood like a duck to water. “He’s so fun. I just love hanging out with him. 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 the TV star admits he’s a tad “bored of singing The Postman Pat theme tune”, his adorable son makes up for it, by constantly making him laugh. “This is fun at the moment. He is obsessed with trucks but can’t say the word truck, and instead he says the word c**k. So that’s funny.“
“And so he just points at big trucks and says big c**k really loud in the High Street. It’s just hilarious, whilst also being, like, 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…Get Me Out of Here! The pair instantly hit it off, and Joel popped the question, just a year later. In 2019, they tied the knot in a stunning beachfront ceremony in Mykonos. Welcoming baby Wilde a few years later was the perfect next chapter, he admits.
And while Joel says he doesn’t have any big secret when it comes to a happy marriage, he does believe that “honesty is key”. “I think it’s also taking time to speak to each other and properly communicate at the end of the day, which is difficult when you’re a parent”.
Asked if the challenges of parenting ever cause friction between them, Joel 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 fight.”
Meanwhile, after almost a decade after his own jungle stint where he shared the campsite with the likes of Emily Atack, Carol Vorderman and eventual jungle queen Scarlett Moffatt, Joel is feeling the full circle moment as he returns not as a contestant but as a host of 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. It’s really, really nice to round off those 10 years and to be still going back there after so long, it is 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.”
Joel took part in the 16th series and finished as the runner-up, with Adam Thomas placing third and Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt winning the crown. Sweetly describing his Unpacked co-host Kemi Rogers as “so easy to work with”, Joel admits, their show is much harder to create than how it comes across on the telly.
“In reality, you are 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.”
Despite the trials, tribulations and teamwork involved in creating the show in Australia and getting it into our homes in the UK, Joel says, “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.”
The Masked Singer presenter also believes I’m A Celeb remains one of the absolute highlights of our TV viewing throughout the year – a show unlike any other.
“What is amazing about the show is the different people’s reactions to the trials and the hunger. Different people’s reactions are what make that show so special. You have certain people who just take it in their stride. You have other people who just immediately say ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. You have other people who scream, scream, scream and others who just close their eyes and zone out.
“It just brings these celebrities out of their comfort zone, and you see a side of them that you would never see on any other show. It’s just so captivating and ridiculous and fun”
Joking that his favourite contestant during his own stint is ‘himself’, he then admits with a giggle that his favourite camp-mate was one of his best friends, actor Adam Thomas.
“I just thought 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, and 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.”
And would Joel be willing to step in as a contestant for the second time for an I’m A Celeb All Stars series, if he were asked? “Never say never”, he smiles. “It would definitely get me off my mobile phone for a while!”
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! starts 16th November on ITV1, STV, ITVX and STV Player
Source: Mirror
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