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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Judi James

I'm A Celebrity's Vernon Kay showed 'gesture of regret' over live final as he came third

Vernon Kay showed "gesture of regret" over Friday night's live I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! final.

The telly presenter, 46, came in third place on the hit ITV show, with Radio 1 DJ Jordan North narrowly missing out on the crown to Giovanna Fletcher.

As hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly announced Vernon's name in third place, Vernon - who is married to Tess Daly - gave his best gracious defeated face to the camera.

But it seems as though his facial expressions gave his inner feelings away a little more than he'd hoped.

Body language expert and author Judi James told The Mirror: "Even TV veteran Vernon almost got away with his assertion that he was 'ecstatic' coming third."

Vernon came in third place on this year's I'm A Celeb (ITV)

Judi added: "Although the way he sucked his lips in after he said it in a gesture of regret suggested he would quite naturally have liked to top the show off with a win.

"For a show that is primarily about screaming, suffering and cruelty, this series of I’m A Celeb was one long love-in for the contestants and even the runner-up Jordan was one of the nicest, most loveable guys to appear on our screens for a long time.

"He looked genuinely happy to come second to Giovanna, although he might have let slip the more competitive nature of the show when he said he was happy ‘losing’ to her before quickly correcting himself to ‘runner up’."

Vernon was seen crowning Giovanna Fletcher as the Queen of the Castle (ITV)

This year's coronation was understandably different to that of previous years.

The raging coronavirus pandemic has made it challenging to crown the Queen of the Castle in the way past contestants were crowned, meaning that the already eliminated celebs had called in via video chat instead of being there physically.

"It would have been great to see the other contestants assembled as usual to watch the coronation and spot how many masks might have slipped once they’d been eliminated from what was a ferocious popularity contest," Judi noted.

Jordan North narrowly missed out on the top spot (ITV)

Judi added: "They all used the clichés of being ‘friends for life’ but some of the mini-feuds in there, like AJ and Shane’s power-spat over the washing up, might have emerged in some signals of resentment or dislike.

"But all we got were rows of grinning faces on Skype, suggesting the celebs might have scattered off home rather than waiting for the final as is the tradition in I’m A Celeb."

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