Kosher Currie: Edwina finishes fourth in the jungle

Jungle-faring contestants on ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ could have been sat down to a Friday night dinner with Jewish contestant Edwina Currie if she’d had her way, her husband has revealed, writes Sharon Feinstein.

The image of former MP cooking for minor celebrities and TV hosts Ant and Dec is not a strange one, according to her husband John Jones, speaking as the show came to a finish.

Currie, who came fourth in the competition, is best known for her affair with former Prime Minister John Major, but for the past several weeks she has been showing ITV audiences that she still has a saucy side, hitting the headlines for flirting with toned X-Factor star Jake Quickenden, who she described as “a great star in the making”.

But it is the home comforts of Judaism and family that she is most interested in, according to Jones.

“Being Jewish is hugely important to Edwina,” he said. “She’s not religious but loves doing Shabbat dinner on a Friday night. We should have suggested this to the Jungle organisers. She could have arranged a Friday night dinner for the whole group. Viewers would probably have loved it.”

Jones said that while Currie saw it as a “traditional thing” the pair often enjoyed it with friends, noting that it was “great fun”. He added: “I’m sure she’s missed it [in the jungle]. It takes her back to her childhood, her inheritance.”

With life now back to normal at their Peak District home, Currie’s favoured creature comforts close to-hand, thoughts turned to an extension the couple will build using the £100,000 appearance money she was paid for taking part in the show.

What to call the extension? “The Jungle Room,” she says with a grin.