Jack Maynard "broke down" in his hotel room after he was booted off ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ when his homophobic and racist tweets resurfaced online.
The 23-year-old vlogger was removed from the famous jungle – 72 hours after he entered – after it emerged that he had propositioned a 14-year-old girl, joked about rape, used a derogatory term and posted gay slurs online when he was a teenager.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said of his departure: "I was very upset. I broke down in the hotel once I’d got out. It all kind of hit me. I was just on my own in the room. My phone had blown up from all mu friends and family getting in touch."
The YouTube sensation – who is the first internet star to do the show – has admitted his behaviour when he was 16 was "absolutely disgraceful" and even his family hated him.
He explained: "There is absolutely no excuse for what I said. I don’t know what I was thinking in ever posting anything like that. I am truly, truly, sorry about all of the past comments I made. They are totally unacceptable and I’m praying that people learn from this and don’t make the same mistakes that I did! …
"I was just at a really stupid age. even my mum said she hated 16-year-old Jack. That was clearly a horrible person. I’ve just got to carry on growing and learning and hopefully teaching everyone else not to make the same mistakes."
Jack has revealed he had deleted the disgusting tweets – in which he used the N-word and f***** during an online spat – before he went into the jungle so was shocked when he found out that someone had managed to get hold of them and publish them.
He said: "It was just in the back of my mind, as I’d deleted them.
"I always knew that going on a show like this – the biggest show in the country – that there was always going to be a chance that things would resurface."
Jack’s exit came off the back of a girl claiming he had asked her to send him nude pictures when he was 16 and she was 14 – but he is adamant he didn’t know her age.
He explained: "I was 16 at the time. I wasn’t aware that she was 14. We had some flirty messages between me and her which got out of hand. What I said to her was disgusting and very, very unfair. I totally do respect all women. Speaking about some of that makes me feel miserable. This isn’t an uncommon conversation for a 16 year old to have, it just got out of hand."