I'm A Celeb star Marvin Humes shares baby plans with This Morning presenter wife Rochelle

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since radio and TV star Marvin Humes skydived into the I’m A Celebrity jungle. Despite being terrified of heights, Marvin, 39, jumped out of a helicopter at 15,000ft to reach the outback, where he spent three weeks on a diet of rice and beans with the likes of reality star Sam Thompson, This Morning host Josie Gibson and politician Nigel Farage.

And now, as the latest group of unwitting celebrities settles into jungle life for series 24, the JLS singer – who finished fifth on last year’s show – has some words of advice. “It’s really boring and it’s practical advice, but they’ve got to make the food stretch,” he says. “I can’t tell you how much we take for granted things like salt and pepper and sugar and seasoning. The food is so, so bland. We would get a camel’s foot to eat and we would keep the skin just to flavour the rice!”

As well as I’m A Celebrity, Marvin, wife Rochelle, 35, and their three children Alaia-Mai, 11, Valentina, seven, and Blake, four, have been tuning into this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, to cheer on Marvin’s bandmate JB Gill.

READ MORE: TOWIE's Georgia Kousoulou welcomes second child with Tommy Mallet and announces sweet name

READ MORE: Davina McCall makes surprise appearance on I'm A Celeb - after undergoing brain surgery

Here, we chat to Marvin about his own I’m A Celeb experience, his bromance with Sam Thompson and who he’s backing for jungle glory…

Hi Marvin! We can’t believe you were in the jungle a whole year ago. What do you think of this year’s line-up?

It’s going to be another incredible year. There are some great characters and big personalities. I’m close with Melvin [Odoom]. He’s a friend of ours – he worked with Rochelle on The Xtra Factor back in the day and I’ve known him through working in radio, but we are genuinely friends. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to pick my brains. But I also told him it would be the greatest experience in his life.

Are you backing Melvin?

Yes! I’ve spent time with Danny Jones over the years, and Tulisa, and I’ve met GK Barry, but I’ve got to back my boy.

How was your experience?

What you see is what you get. There can be lots of sitting around in not comfortable places, like a wooden log, and obviously the food situation is tough. There were rats running around in the Bush Telegraph. There are obviously cameras everywhere, but it is a real jungle. But listen, on the flip side, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

I wouldn’t ever have skydived, I wouldn’t ever have had snakes around my neck, eaten fish eyes and drunk the juice, and I would never have been in a tub of gravy with Nigel Farage singing Christmas carols. Not many people can say they have done that!

Are you still friends with any of your campmates?

I’m really, really close to Sam. He’s in Australia now doing the spin-off show, but I usually see him every day as we work at the same radio station. He comes into my studio for a little session in the morning to have 20 minutes together and a man chat. He’s a great guy. I speak to Tony Bellew and Danielle Harold, and I’ve seen Fred Sirieix out and about.

We have to ask you about Strictly, which your bandmate JB is taking part in…

He’s absolutely smashing it. It’s such a tough show in a different way to the jungle, because your life is still going ahead. You need to fit in the dancing while you’ve got your family life and your other work. The demand is tougher but he’s killing it. We’ve been watching him and voting every week. The kids love watching Uncle J. Blake was copying his body ripples the other day!

And how is your family?

They’re amazing, thank you. We’re super proud parents and we’re lucky to have three wonderful children.

Blake has just turned four. Do you feel like your family is complete now?

I can safely say we’re done. As I said, we’re very lucky that we’ve been very blessed with three beautiful children. We are at the point now where we can leave the house with just the children, nothing else – no buggies, no bags, no this, no that.

It’s hard to believe it’s 15 years since JLS’s 2009 debut album, but you’ve just released a 15th anniversary album…

I know! We had a signing at HMV yesterday. It was very old school and we had fans there who weren’t even born 15 years ago, but they’ve seen us in the jungle or on Strictly. It’s an important milestone to celebrate. We’ve been together since 2007 [they were on The X Factor in 2008] and 17 years later it’s still something we love.

We see you’ve teamed up with Fairy for its #LoadsOfKindness campaign. How important is it to be kind?

We hear statements about being kind, but this campaign is about reminding people. Social media, for example, can be quite a mean place and it’s about getting people to stop and think about what they can do to be kind. It might be helping someone down the stairs with a heavy bag or giving up your seat on public transport. When Rochelle and I have parents’ evening the most important thing we want to hear is that our children are kind. It can be simple manners or asking how someone is and being polite. There is no magic handbook to parenting, we are all winging it and doing the best we can, but we want to instil kindness in our children like our parents did with us.

Fairy Non Bio has teamed up with Paddington In Peru to celebrate kindness. Pledge your own act of kindness on social media using #LoadsOfKindness