Scarlette Douglas has spoken about reaching out to Jonnie Irwin over his terminal cancer diagnosis.
The presenters had been colleagues on A Place in the Sun, prior to their respective departures from the Channel 4 show. They had both been part of its presenting line-up.
Just a couple of months ago, Jonnie, 49, announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He shared the devastating news in an interview in November last year.
The father-of-three revealed that in 2020 he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, which had spread to his brain.
Scarlette, 35, has said she knew Jonnie "was ill" but hadn't known the severity until his announcement, which she heard after leaving I'm A Celebrity's camp in November.
Asked if she had reached out to him, she told us: "Absolutely. [...] The A Place in the Sun family were told in 2020 that Jonnie was ill but we didn't know the extent of it.
"It wasn't until I actually came out of the jungle [that I found out it was terminal]. I'd been in the jungle [and] you can't have any contact so I didn't know the severity of it."
She said that she had heard about his terminal diagnosis from journalists after leaving camp. She said: "So of course the first thing I did was I sent Jonnie a message."
Scarlette - who has previously addressed criticism over having not reached out to him publicly - added in our interview: "I sent him a private message to his mobile."
"I remember getting a lot of stick from people on social media [at the time]," said Scarlette, talking to us as she supports easyJet Holidays' new 'Beach in a Box' campaign.
She said that some people had felt she was only talking about her experience on I'm A Celebrity since coming out of the jungle and that she "hadn't reached out to Jonnie."
Scarlette suggested that it would have lacked "sincerity" to reach out to him publicly on social media, reiterating that she had instead decided to message him privately.
Recalling her thoughts, she said: "I'm not going to do that publicly because it's a private matter. I'm gonna message him directly. [...] Doing it for everyone else to see, there's no sincerity to that. That doesn't make any sense for me."
Scarlette said that she had wanted to let Jonnie know in her message that if he needed anything, she was there for him.
She recalled: "I'm gonna let him know that if he needs anything, I'm here, y'know, I'm thinking of him and I hope he can make as many beautiful memories with his family as possible."
Jonnie has three children with his wife Jessica Holmes, 40, whom he married in 2016. The couple are parents to son Rex, four, as well as twins Rafa and Cormac, both two.
He's previously expressed a desire to make more memories with his family, telling Hello magazine: "Because the reality is, my boys are going to grow up not knowing their dad".
