With the young TikTok sensation causing a stir on I’m a Celebrity… Is ITV ruing the day it put motormouth Nella Rose in the jungle?
As a young TikTok sensation with millions of young fans, Nella Rose has been on the minds of ITV bosses for quite some time.
With instruction from the upper echelons at the network to find talent which will appeal to the ever-important youth market, casting agents were keen to sign her for this year’s I’m A Celebrity.
Not only does Nella, 26, who is of Congolese descent, tick diversity boxes, but crucially her social media content — her hair and make-up video blogs are particularly popular — meant she already has millions of fans who follow her every move.
However, in just a matter of days — as Nella seems to be falling out with and offending campmates at the drop of a hat, and attracting derision and scrutiny from all quarters — it’s fair to wonder if ITV is now beginning to regret its actions.
Before arriving in the jungle Nella, a sociology graduate, had already cut her teeth as a presenter, hosting MTV’s Catfish — a documentary which explores the ups and downs of online dating.
Nella Rose, right, seems to be falling out with and offending campmates at the drop of a hat, and attracting derision and scrutiny from all quarters
It is no secret within ITV that Nella was viewed as a future face of the channel. One insider at ITV revealed: ‘Nella was on the list for a while, she is feisty and fun and comes with a huge, huge following’
Rose, who has taken TikTok by storm, has millions of fans who follow her every move
It is no secret within ITV that Nella was viewed as a future face of the channel. She even signed up with agent Jonathan Shalit – known as a star-maker courtesy of managing Charlotte Church and Myleene Klass — in a bid to raise her profile.
Shalit also has strong relationships with ITV, having worked with Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Kate Garraway in the past.
One insider at the broadcaster revealed: ‘Nella was on the list for a while, she is feisty and fun and comes with a huge, huge following.
‘While a lot of the viewers won’t have heard of her, the kids have, and that is very important.
‘The idea was that that show, with its millions of viewers, would make her a household name and she would be handed lots of work by ITV.’
It took little more than 48 hours, however, before her combative personality emerged during a row with camp mate Fred Sirieix in the incident which has now been called ‘Dadgate’.
Sirieix, the 51-year-old host of romance series First Dates, had quipped, seemingly innocently, that he needed laser eye surgery because ‘I’m old enough to be your dad’. Nella said she felt ‘disrespected’ and ‘offended’ because Sirieix knew her father had died in 2020.
She subsequently refused to look at him and declared they would no longer ‘be friends’ in the camp. Her comments prompted uproar among viewers, with the older audience baffled as to why Sirieix’s comment was enough to trigger such an explosive response. They later had to team up for a jungle trial and appeared to make friends.
While starting a national conversation is always something ITV top brass encourage and enjoy immensely — high social media engagement with ‘Nella’ trending on Twitter for days was also a win — Nella was back in the eye of the storm the following day when she clashed with another of her jungle co-stars, Nigel Farage.
This row, some accusers have said, was deliberately stoked up as a shameful, cheap, race-baiting exercise. On Wednesday’s episode, she accused the Reform party co-founder of being anti-immigration, saying he wanted people like her ‘gone’ from the UK while discussing his policies to reduce immigration.
It took little more than 48 hours, however, before her combative personality emerged during a row with camp mate Fred Sirieix in the incident which has now been called ‘Dadgate’
High social media engagement with ‘Nella’ trending on Twitter for days was also a win for ITV
Nella was back in the eye of the storm the following day when she clashed with another of her jungle co-stars, Nigel Farage
Farage, who currently works as a presenter on GB News, and never a stranger to controversy or debate, put up a robust defence, saying Nella was being ‘grossly unfair’ and ‘chucking around accusations’.
‘All I’ve said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming,’ he said.
But Nella wasn’t giving up and continued to grill Farage about his ‘problem’ with immigrants such as her. Eventually, a stalemate was reached with Farage adding: ‘We can agree to disagree.’
While, once again, the row became a talking point up and down the country, sources say that ITV bosses are now wondering whether her fiery temperament is really suited to the spotlight.
One tells me: ‘It’s all starting to unravel with Nella now. You have to wonder whether she is the next big thing or not.’
There was much chatter before I’m A Celeb launched that Nella and Farage would fall out. In fact, it was widely discussed by Nella’s fans on social media.
A show insider tells me: ‘They come from totally opposite sides when it comes to their politics. We all knew that something would blow up.’
Indeed, there is also talk within ITV that an immigration row between the pair would be something that would ‘most definitely happen’ and that it would stoke up a much-needed bust-up to attract viewers.
And on Thursday night, former editor of The Sun newspaper Kelvin MacKenzie lambasted ITV for using Nella to wind Farage up in the jungle.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘It’s now clear ITV’s p***poor management deliberately hired Nella Rose in order to trigger off a race row with Farage. ITV should hang their head in shame at turning a popular TV franchise into another race-baiting exercise.’
Sources say that ITV bosses are now wondering whether her fiery temperament is really suited to the spotlight
There was much chatter before I’m A Celeb launched that Nella and Farage would fall out. A show insider tells me: ‘We all knew that something would blow up’
There is also talk within ITV that an immigration row between Rose and Farage would be something that would ‘most definitely happen’
Indeed it has had ramifications for Nella. While she will undoubtedly have hoped that it would increase her appeal to young people, many of her own fans have turned on her. She may be unaware of that while she is in the jungle, but it is something she will become acutely aware of when she departs.
So who exactly is Nella Rose, the woman who has been the talk of Middle England this week?
Born Ornella Rose Hollela, in Belgium, she moved to the UK with her mother and older brother when she was seven. They settled in the Mill Hill area of North-West London.
Her parents, who were separated, died within four years of each other. Her mother died ‘in her arms’ in 2016, shortly after Nella turned 19 and while a student at Leicester University. Her father, who had remained in Belgium, died in 2020.
It led to her finding herself, what she considered ‘homeless’ as she and her brother were kicked out of the family council flat, leaving her with nowhere to live during the university summer holidays.
Nella has described that difficult period in her life on her YouTube channel, as she ‘sofa surfed’ and lived out of a suitcase: ‘After she passed away we thought we could just stay living in the house.
‘One day, me and my brother got this letter which basically said they were evicting us from the council flat.
‘I lived at my uni accommodation room, which was my house. That was literally it. I was basically ‘homeless’ [she made inverted commas with her fingers at this point in her video]. The summer I was at uni I had to move out of Leicester and I had nowhere to put my stuff. I came down to London and I was living out of a suitcase. I lived at my uncle’s house for a bit.’
Around that time, Nella began to build up her YouTube subscribers after starting it up in 2015 with hair tutorials and fashion tips.
She once described finding herself in a situation where she’d hit 100,000 subscribers and was living an outwardly privileged, exciting life, but underneath was feeling rootless and lost.
‘To everyone else it was like, ‘Oh my God, Nella’s doing so well, she’s smashing it, she’s really happy.’ But in reality I was homeless, living out of a suitcase from couch to couch from bed to bed.
‘One minute I was in Malta, the next I was Portugal then I went back to Paris. I went on so many holidays and everyone was like, ‘Nella Rose, she’s living her best life.’ The only reason I went on that many holidays was because I was just running away from the fact that I had no solid concrete place to stay.
Born Ornella Rose Hollela, in Belgium, she moved to the UK with her mother and older brother when she was seven
Rose is on the cusp of being worth £1 million and last year bought her own home for the first time, a plush flat in London
Nella herself confessed at the end of last week that she was close to quitting the ITV show, as she ‘never’ sees tough challenges through to the end
‘I didn’t have a bed to call my own, I didn’t have an address.’
Set on losing her thick French accent, the I’m A Celebrity contestant would watch videos of hosts Ant & Dec as a means of learning to adopt a British accent. At the age of 20, she rented her first flat in an affluent area of London and admitted it cost thousands to furnish.
But today — now with more than a million followers on TikTok and Instagram — she is on the cusp of being worth £1 million and last year bought her own home for the first time, a plush flat in London.
But will her jungle outbursts now derail a career that looked set to take off? If, that is, she has the stamina to keep going.
Nella herself confessed at the end of last week that she was close to quitting the ITV show, as she ‘never’ sees tough challenges through to the end.
‘I’ve never ever in my life started something and finished it,’ she said. ‘I always quit or always sign on short term. So this was the one thing I thought I’d try and stick it through, but I already think…’
She added: ‘I can’t lie, if I’m honest, if [Britney Spears’ sister] Jamie Lynn left yesterday I would have been right behind her. I just don’t want to be the first.’
What awaits her on the outside, however, is anyone’s guess. As one ITV insider tells me: ‘If Nella doesn’t take off after this, well, what a waste it would have been.’
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