Richard Madeley says 'never say never' about I'm a Celeb return as he reveals why he left

Richard Madeley said he would "never say never" when asked if he would return to I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!.

The presenter was speaking after he was rushed to hospital with what he says was suspected dehydrated".

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Mr Madeley said he would consider a return to the show - but only if he could swap the Welsh castle for the Australian jungle.

He said he was "gutted" to have to withdraw from the show after breaking the show's Covid bubble as a consequence of his hospital visit.

Mr Madeley said the risk of taking Covid back into the castle was too high and could potentially have "killed the show".

He was taken ill after tackling the Kitchen Disaster challenge.

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The TV star later said he felt “fit as a fiddle” and was “gutted” that Covid restrictions meant he was not able to return to the show.

Mr Madeley said he had not drunk enough water and had become dehydrated.

“I knew I was feeling thirsty, and I’m quite bad at remembering to drink water. As I snuggled into my sleeping bag and it was freezing, I thought, ‘Ah, I haven’t had a big drink for a while. Oh I’ll do it when I wake up’ and the next thing I knew I was sitting there babbling. I was just talking nonsense," he said.

“I woke up, I didn’t know where I was, what was going on and I could hardly string a sentence together. As it turned out, it was harmless and there was nothing wrong. I went to hospital, had all the tests you can imagine and I got a 100 per cent clean bill of health and they were happy for me to go back in.

“By then I’d had a cup of tea and a drink of water and I was back on the rails, but ITV has a proper duty of care and if you’ve got somebody sitting in that castle talking nonsense at 4:30 in the morning, well that’s typical of me anyway, but they’ve got to check it out.

"It wasn’t until I was getting the meds back and they were saying you’re fine to go back in, I suddenly thought can I go back in actually? I’ve broken the bubble."

He said he could have "killed the show" if he had been allowed back in.

"The fact of the matter is if I had gone back in having spent two hours out in the real world, with hospital porters and all the rest of it, had I taken the bug in it would have killed the show. It would have spread very, very quickly," he said.

"And the show would have been off air, not because of the storm, but because of me. "So, they just had to follow the protocol, I don't blame them at all. "I'm gutted, I keep saying it, I'm gutted. I should be back there."

GMB host Susanna Reid asked he if he would go back on I'm A Celebrity...

"Never say never," he said but went onto say he would not go back to the castle, but would consider the Australian jungle.

"I'd certainly consider it... but I wouldn't do the castle again, thanks very much. Been there.

"I'd go where it's warm. If you get chucked into clink, as we were, in the castle, it was freezing. We were actually shivering. Whereas if you're cast into jail in the jungle, Rat Rock or whatever it's called, at least it's warm," he told Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard.

The I'm a Celeb contestants had to leave the castle after the production base was damaged by Storm Arwen.

ITV said the show's production base sustained "significant damage" during Storm Arwen which hit Wales and much of the rest of the UK on Friday night into Saturday.

Due to strict Covid rules, the contestants will remain in quarantine until they are able to return to Gwrych Castle when the production is able to safely resume.