I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star Frankie Dettori has insisted he still feels like a winner – despite leaving the jungle in the first eviction vote off.
The 52 year old jockey was slightly surprised to be first past the post when it came to leaving, aside from Grace Dent and Jamie Lynn Spears who quit the camp on medical grounds last week.
In his first in-depth interview since leaving camp on Sunday night, 3 December, Frankie blamed the show's editing for his early exit, but said he had no regrets.
Referring to entering the show on Day five as a latecomer, he said: "Everybody had already bonded for four days. So I'm, you know, the new kid who arrived in a new school afterwards.
"It took a while to break the ice and be accepted to get to know everyone, I'm not going to lie about it. I have to go round one by one and really, you know, apart from Nigel [Farage], I never met anyone. So that was a slow process.
"And you don't see what is edited on TV. And speaking to my wife, she said, you know, I had very little airtime and I thought I had done a lot.
"It all depends how it is edited to the programme. But you know what? To me I have come out of there as a winner. I challenged myself. I passed every challenge.
"And, I like to say it could have been two weeks or three weeks, it wouldn't have made no difference. I just felt like I did everything I wanted to achieve and I'm very proud of what I did. Going to the jungle it's not a race when you are actually in control.
"It's the public in control. It's the media, it's the social media," the champion rider went on. "I mean, I feel like a winner because every challenge I took, I did it and I took it head on I never ducked out of anything."
Frankie, who was due to retire from racing last month but decided to sign up to a new deal that would lead him to move to America in 2024 instead, is convinced Sam Thompson will win I'm A Celebrity this year.
While the star admitted that he would have wanted the Made in Chelsea favourite to be quiet at times, his energy makes him a born entertainer and as a result he brought "happiness to everything" in the camp.
"He reminds me of Rylan when I did Big Brother, he is full of life and he hasn't got a bad bone in his body," the jockey shared. "Sam is funny, he is entertaining. And you know, he brings a lot to the table. It's an entertainment show and I think he is a natural entertainer. I think that's who he is as a person.
"I mean, sometimes you want to put him on mute, you know what I mean? He's just non stop," the sportsman laughed. "He's like our phones, right? It's fully charged and then the charge runs out. Boom, he goes to sleep, he gets up 8 hours later and sings, dances and makes songs. There's just no stopping him. In a nice way.
"He sees everything in a good light and brings happiness to everything. The camp would be very different without him and he will get to the final," the star added.
Frankie also had a good relationship with politician Nigel Farage and already knew him before going into camp.
Whilst the GB News host is often divisive and at the centre of rows in camp, the jockey was full of praise.
Frankie revealed that Nigel may have fallen foul of some guidelines the celebs are given when it comes to showering naked, as viewers and This Morning presenter Josie Gibson have witnessed.
"The shower is miles away from the camps so we don't know what's going on," Frankie said when asked if he had also seen Nigel washing with his naked bottom on show. I am not going to go and spy on Nigel's butt," the jockey joked. "But really? We were told to keep our swimmers on.
"I love Nigel, he is super funny, very interesting, very knowledgeable. He's got an opinion about something. And he says it how it is," the former jungle campmate added.
I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! continues every night at 9pm on ITV until the final on Sunday 9 December
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