Tom and Paul became close after working on Celebs Go Dating together
I’m A Celebrity’s Tom Read Wison’s close friend Paul C Brunson has admitted that he’s ‘jealous’ over one aspect of him taking part on the ITV reality show.
Tom and Paul have worked alongside each other for a number of years on E4 dating series Celebs Go Dating, which sees a host of famous faces attempting to find love. With Tom serving as the show’s receptionist and Paul providing his words of wisdom, the pair have formed a close friendship behind the scenes.
I’m A Celebrity viewers were introduced to Tom on the Ant and Dec series last week when he arrived alongside Irish TV presenter Vogue Williams as the two late arrivals. Tom quickly made an impression on those watching at home.
With lots of clips of him in the Australian jungle going viral on social media, Tom has won a new legion of fans through his one of a kind accent, impressions and hilarious reactions during Bushtucker trials.
On Thursday morning (November 27), Paul joined Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on This Morning to talk about why ‘you can’t take your eyes off Tom Read Wilson’. Ben asked Tom at the beginning of the interview what his first reaction to Tom was.
Paul replied: “‘Is this guy real?’ You’re wondering if the accent is real, are the mannerisms real. Quickly I found out that he is being authentic 100% of the time.”
Viewers saw Tom become emotional on Wednesday (November 26) over being away from his family, with his fellow campmates rushing to comfort him when he became teary eyed at the campsite.
“When we think about home, home is not company, it’s safety. It’s what everyone is missing, they’re missing that routine and safety. Without it, their emotional vulnerability comes up… My concern was never him at an event or him eating something.
“It was always that he’d be disappointed at upsetting or hurting someone. When he goes in late and has to make these assignments, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’ s feelings. He’s an empath, he’s very empathic. That would be the most challenging bits for him,” Paul said.
He continued: “He is one of my best friends, but we have a golden rule. We don’t talk about industries. When we get together we talk about music, art, politics, but we don’t talk about the business.
“We were exchanging voice notes the night before he left. It just so happened that I was able to tell him all the things I love about him. Someone told me that something could be happening.”
One person who Tom has taken a shine to on I’m A Celebrity is American comedian Ruby Wax, with Cat noting they’re ‘gravitated towards each other’. Paul suggested that Tom is a big fan of her ‘purity and rawness’.
“This is how he’s like every day, this is how I fell in love with him. When me and my wife first moved to London, we had no one as a support system. Tom volunteered to watch our boys as a babysitter. Our boys have grown up with the best babysitter in the world.
“He would come over and switch up his voice, play card games with them, read books with them. I saw that he has this ability to connect with everyone and it’s not an act. It’s just how incredible he is,” he said.
Despite loving seeing Tom taking on the reality show, Paul is worried about just how big his profile will be once he returns to the UK at the end of the series.
“I’ll be honest, I am a bit jealous because I don’t want everyone to take my Tom. I don’t want to share him. It’s hard enough to go out with him because everyone is stopping him. I love that so many people realise how pure he is. I think it’s given so many of us hope in human kind.
“I think I’ll have to change it [their future plans]. We were going out for dinner with Anna Williamson from Celebs Go Dating and our families. We might have to do it privately now,” he joked.
