'My heart is broken': Food critic Grace Dent's surprise exit from I'm A Celebrity

Dent was particularly worried about the camp diet before entering the jungle. Credit: I'm A Celebrity/ITV

Food critic Grace Dent has left ITV show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! on medical grounds.

She told her fellow campmates that her “heart is broken” in a statement read by actor Nick Pickard read in the ITV show camp on Monday’s episode.It said: “My dear campmates, I’m so sorry to let you down. I have left the camp for medical reasons.

“My heart is broken. I have loved and enjoyed getting to know you all. You’ve held me up and it’s been a pleasure being your friend through this experience.

“Leaving you all at this stage will be one of the saddest things in my life. I love you all. Your friend, Miss Grace Dent.”

The campmates shared messages of support, with a tearful Danielle Harold shouting “Love you Grace”, and praising the MasterChef judge for doing “really well”.

JLS singer Marvin Humes said he would miss Dent, adding: “She hasn’t let us down.”

A show spokesperson said: "Unfortunately Grace Dent has left the show on medical grounds.

"She has been a great campmate and will be missed by her fellow celebrities and viewers alike."

ITV has not given any specifics as to the medical reasons for Dent's departure.

The food critic was attended to by a medic in a recent episode of I'm A Celeb as a cockroach crawled into her ear during a bushtucker trial.

"That's not nice, I can hear it," Dent said as a medic sprayed water into her ear to get the critter out.

The MasterChef star was pictured at Brisbane Airport on Monday afternoon.

Before entering the jungle, Dent said it was the camp diet she was least looking forward to.

“Everything is filling me with a real sense of dread,” she said.

“But I am especially dreading being really hungry because I tend to eat four or five posh meals out a week because I am a restaurant critic.

“I know they are going to give me an eating trial and I am dreading putting even worse things in my mouth than I have in the past in fancy restaurants.

"I think I will be writing very stiff columns about the jungle food when I come out!"

The show first aired on 19 November and Dent was in the first group of 10 campmates to enter the Australian jungle.

Tune into the ITV News entertainment podcast, Unscripted…