Joe Swash leaves I’m A Celebrity after breaking down talking about wife Stacey Solomon

Joe Swash is out of I'm A Celebrity after he wept about the difficulties of being away from his family while on the show.

He won the series in 2008 and recently returned for the South Africa special along with many other iconic campmates over the years, but now he's out after losing an elimination challenge.

His exit began when the campmates had to pick rocks from a bag to work out who'd be facing a special elimination challenge, with the celebrities choosing who would be safe from going out.

In the end it was Swash and cricketer Phil Tufnell who weren't picked to be saved from the challenge and the pair went head-to-head in a 'battle royale' as they'd both won I'm A Celebrity in the past.

Swash and Tufnell were both locked into tombs where they raced against each other to find the way to undo four locks and get back out again, with Swash losing the trial and his place in South Africa.

His exit from the jungle comes shortly after he broke down in tears about how difficult it was to be away from his family and how I'm A Celebrity is much harder now he's a 'different person'.

ITV

Joe's campmates had spotted that he was looking a little bit down in the dumps and went to check on him, leading Swash to reveal that he was struggling.

He talked about missing wife Stacey Solomon, who he met thanks to I'm A Celebrity, and later opened up about how much his life had changed thanks to being on the show first time around.

He said: "Honestly, I genuinely feel like I’m the biggest winner ever from anyone who’s done this show. It gave me my wife, my kids, a career for over a decade.

"Growing up, all I wanted to be was a dad and have a family. The jungle came along and I met my wife on the jungle."

"I have two amazing kids, me and Stacey have had since we’ve been in the jungle. I feel like I’ve won this already. I don’t know where I would be without it. I’d just be that dude that was on EastEnders years ago. Now, I’m Stacey Solomon’s husband."

ITV

Fans of I'm A Celebrity were really sorry to see Joe go, taking to social media to say it was 'so sad' to see him leave and that they were already missing the 'legend'.

Someone else said he 'does not deserve to go home' while a third said it was a 'bad decision' to put one of Swash and Tufnell out as the camp would lose 'one of the biggest characters'.

Another said 'all the best ones are going' and quite a few viewers seemed to think that the more exciting campmates were leaving I'm A Celebrity.

Others thought he'd 'lost the trial on purpose' so he could get out of the jungle and go back to his wife and kids, though they were still sad to see him go.