I’m a Celeb: Scarlette Douglas says she ‘genuinely didn’t know’ about Boy George prison sentence

I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star Scarlette Douglas has spoken about her confrontation with Boy George in camp about his 2008 prison sentence.

The A Place in the Sun presenter was the second contestant to be eliminated from camp during Sunday (20 November) night’s show, following on from Loose Women’s Charlene White on Friday (18 November).

Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Monday (21 November), Douglas was asked about one particularly awkward moment in camp when she questioned the Culture Club singer about his court case.

In 2008, the singer was convicted of assault and false imprisonment after chaining a man to his wall. Boy George pleaded not guilty at the time, and claimed in court that he handcuffed the man because he wanted to track down stolen photos taken from his laptop.

When Douglas mentioned the incident in the jungle, Boy George said back that it was “not true” and parts of the story were “folklore”, before calling her comments “inappropriate”.

Douglas told the GMB hosts that she “genuinely didn’t know” the details of the case, but that the musician had “pretty much just shut it down”.

“I’m gonna be honest, I genuinely didn’t know,” she said. “When he actually told me, I was quite shocked and I obviously wanted to delve deeper but he pretty much just shut it down and moved on.

“Of course, it’s his story to tell, it’s not mine. So if he doesn’t want to talk about it, that’s for him.”

Douglas raised the subject in the jungle after Boy George had said that people should take what they read in the papers with “a pinch of salt”.

She asked Boy George: “What happened with you, BG, and some guy in handcuffs and a radiator?”

“That’s not true,” he shot back, with Douglas clarifying: “Oh, I don’t know what the story [is], I just heard radiator, handcuffs.”

“No radiators. Handcuffs is true but the radiator bit wasn’t true, but thanks for bringing it up,” he said, while laughing.

Douglas apologised, saying: “Sorry, because I was just like, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was a fake story,” while Boy George said the case had become “folklore”.

In the Bush Telegraph, he said: “Scarlette blatantly talked about my court case. I thought it was inappropriate what she did, actually. I thought she shouldn’t have said what she said to me. And I thought I handled it really well as it’s a big sore point for me when people say things like that.”

When Boy George mentioned that he went to prison, Douglas seemed genuinely shocked, repeating: “You went to prison? I didn’t know.”

However, viewers on social media were quick to point out that the “Karma Chameleon” singer had made Matt Hancock talk about his own past controversies.

“Me clocking Boy George’s double standards when being held accountable for his own abhorrent actions,” one commenter wrote.

In 2017, Boy George – who is now sober – reflected on the incident while appearing on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories.

“I sent myself to prison,” he said. “I told police why I did what I did. I was having a psychotic episode. I was a drug addict so I can’t say my reasons for doing it were founded in any way. But I told the truth. I have always denied beating the guy.”

I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues tonight at 9.15pm on ITV.