Ant McPartlin joked about his recent rehab stint during the opening episode of ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ on Sunday (19.11.17).
The 42-year-old presenter and his co-host Declan Donnelly, also 42, poked fun at reports that Ant could have been replaced by Holly Willoughby on the show, after he took time out to receive treatment for addiction.
Opening the ITV show, Dec said: "Hello, good morning, good evening, welcome to Australia, we’re back! And, we’re here for the next three weeks, your hosts with the most, me and the gorgeous Holly Willoughby."
Ant jokingly interrupted him, saying: "What! Sorry, what? What!", before Dec pretended to berate the production team.
He said: "Oh guys, that’s the wrong script! You’ve put the wrong script in the thing… Nobody was sure if you were going to make it or not! We didn’t know. We didn’t know if you’d be here."
Ant replied: "I was always going to make it… come on! I’m back my friend – come on?" before he gave his pal a huge hug.
Ant – who has presented the show since 2002 – spent two months in rehab for painkiller addiction earlier this year but recently revealed he was thrilled to be back for ‘I’m A Celebrity’.
He said: "I’m excited to be back, I can’t wait.
"It’s going to be a good show. I’m feeling great. The flight [to Australia] was all right, I had a lot of sleep and me and Dec had a good catch-up."
And the feeling is mutual for Dec as he’s glad he has his partner back by his side and has teased that the new series will be full of "little added twists."
He explained: "I’m looking forward to spending more time with him.
"It’s brilliant to be back together, it’s perfect. Everything just slotted back into place. We can’t wait and we’re raring to go. We are really excited. We’ll have the same old shenanigans, but with a few little added twists. We just can’t wait to get in and get going now. We’ve been waiting for ages, it’s been a long summer break so we can’t wait."
Ant and Dec joke about I’m A Celeb replacement
