I’m A Celebrity’s David Haye seemingly responds to backlash over ‘ugly ducklings’…

14 April 2026, 11:31

I’m A Celebrity South Africa’s David Haye has sparked outrage with shocking views about female attractiveness.

What began as a wholesome chat among the I’m A Celebrity… South Africa campmates, quickly took a controversial turn when David Haye said his partner Sian Osbourne has the personality of a “proper ugly bird”.

The campmates had been talking about their loved ones back home when Sinitta pointed out how David’s partner Sian sounds “drop dead gorgeous”. He said: “Yeah, she’s lovely. She’s got the personality of a proper ugly bird.”

Scarlett Moffatt, Beverley Callard and Ashley Roberts were instantly appalled by his comments as he went on to explain that he believes “ugly birds” have good personalities because they have to rely on it to find a partner, whereas a “gorgeous bird” often has a bad personality because they’ve never needed to have a good one.

“You can’t say that,” Scarlett exclaimed, adding that he was “just chatting s—“. Even the male campmates, Sir Mo Farah, Craig Charles and Seann Walsh looked astonished by his comments.

But it appears David still stands by those comments, even after it sparked outrage on social media.

ITV shared a clip of the conversation on their official I’m A Celebrity Instagram account.

In the clip, he’s heard saying: “Most ugly girls realise they don’t they’re not pretty enough to….they gotta have a personality to banter and to tell jokes and s—, so people overlook the fact that they’re not aesthetically amazing, straight away.”

He called it ‘ugly duckling syndrome’. The comments were instantly flood with people upset about his comments, with one comment saying: “sometimes you just need to be quiet.”

Another wrote: “Oh dear…David has the mindset of a 50 year old bloke in the 70s.”

And a third said: “He would have no chance if this was a viewers voted series.”

Some people, of course, were in agreement with David and praised how he didn’t conform to the campmates’ “woke nonsense”.

David has made himself a collaborator on the video, and has it on his main feed – suggesting he very much still stands by those comments made when the show was filmed last September.

Campmates challenge David Haye on his views

This comes after David has batted away comments about him being in a throuple. He’s been in a relationship with model Sian since 2020, but in recent years he’s also been linked to Saturdays singer Una Healy and acress Helen Flanagan.

It was reported that he and Sian had used the exclusive dating app Raya to look for a third person to join their couple. Una has since addressed this, insisting she was only ever dating him, but that he was pushing for a throuple.

Speaking on Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally’s ‘My Therapist Ghosted Me’ podcast, she claimed she’d been “hoodwinked” into joining the relationship.

Separately, Helen has addressed this too, first on Celebs Go Dating in 2024 when she told the experts on the show: “It was quite something, it’s really hard for me to talk about it he had a girlfriend and an open relationship.

“I didn’t mean to fall in love with him but I did. We did have this amazing connection together. We were like fire together.

“It was weird. I think he does love his girlfriend but he loves me as well. It just brings me to a part of my life that was quite dark, really.”

Later, she wrote about in her book Head & Heart: Break-ups, Breakdowns and Being Rosie. Saying how she was never open to being in a throuple, she wrote: “I’m not a prude, but I’ve never been into that – it was David I liked.”

I’m A Celeb fans have looked to Sian for a comment on his ‘ugly duckling’ theory but she’s yet to speak out. At the time of writing, the pair are enjoying a safari holiday, sharing snaps of various wild animals on their socials.

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