I’m A Celebrity has been hit with fresh controversy, as viewers are now accusing producers of “planting contraband to stir things up” after Shona McGarty’s butter bombshell.
The former EastEnders star stunned campmates – and fans at home – when she admitted she’d secretly polished off a tiny sachet of butter. The revelation, which played out in last night’s episode, sparked enough guilt for Shona to step down as Camp Leader while the rest of the camp tried to process her unexpected confession.
It seems even the smallest treats can cause the biggest ripples in the jungle.
But Shona insisted she had “no idea” where the butter had come from. The star told her campmates she had simply found it in their trunk of cooking utensils.
I’m A Celebrity star Shona McGarty’s contraband butter confession
Shona said in the Bush Telegraph: “I found some butter in the trunk. I don’t know where it came from. True story. But I saw it and my eyes lit up. And I used it.”
Back in camp, mutiny broke out. Kelly Brook squealed: “She didn’t even share it! Someone took the risk and you ate it.”
Angry Ginge added: “So she saw the butter and she took it for herself!”
The camp then began chanting: “Dethrone, dethrone, dethrone!”
In the Bush Telegraph, Kelly said aghast: “I just can’t believe the fall from grace. Shona has gone from sleeping in the most comfortable bed in the treehouse and she threw it all away for a little sachet of butter.”
Kelly then went on to discover the empty butter packet in the trunk by the campfire. She held it up to show everyone, as Shona said she was stepping down as Camp Leader.
Ruby Wax was then voted in by the others to be the new leader.
I’m A Celebrity bosses accused of ‘planting’ contraband
The campmates shared their thoughts on where the butter had come from, with some plumping for Alex Scott. The Lioness has already left the jungle but was caught with salt sachets before her exit.
Alex has since admitted she smuggled the salt into the camp in her sock after picking the sachets up at a service station.
But writing on X, fans have accused show bosses of being behind the butter mystery.
“Do we think the producers give them the contraband to create drama? Surely they’re not eating 2 week old butter that’s not been in the fridge,” one said. Someone else agreed: “Obviously!”
And another viewer added: “Ok so the producers are 100% planting contraband to force story and punishment. Everyone who goes in there knows it’s not allowed and they already got punished before for having it. This is dumb now lmao.”
A third asked how it was not “liquid and rancid in the 33C heat” if it was brought in earlier.
Someone else added: “So Shona found butter in a trunk and used it – it wasn’t even hers to begin with.”
Digital box has contacted ITV for comment.
Alex Scott admitted she ‘put salt down my sock’
Alex was actually the first campmate to get busted with a little something extra this series, after cameras caught her quietly shaking salt over a rather unappetising crocodile feet supper.
That discovery set the tone, because it wasn’t long before Shona owned up to smuggling in a huge can of air freshener. Declan Donnelly cheekily suggested she’d nabbed from the trial area and tucked up her jumper.
The stunt caused a full-blown wobble in camp at the time, with poor Angry Ginge even losing one of his hard-earned stars as a result.
Alex, who became the first celebrity to leave the jungle last week, has now lifted the lid on what really happened. She revealed she hid them in her sock before entering the jungle.
Read more: ITV flooded with complaints as I’m A Celebrity viewers given a ‘scare’ over awkward glitch
I’m A Celebrity continues at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX on Monday December 1, 2025.
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