Restaurant critic Grace Dent has spoken out for the first time since she left the I’m A Celebrity jungle on medical grounds.

The columnist left the Australian jungle earlier this week, and said she “didn’t go out as I planned, or wanted”.

In a statement shared on social media, she said: “Thank you for the outpouring of love I’ve received since I was removed on Monday. I am overwhelmingly sad right now, but determined to keep alive in my heart the huge personal breakthroughs I made over the weeks.”

Dent said that spending 15 days “without a phone or any contact with loved ones, living much of the time outdoors in a rain forest in very wet weather” had given her a “short, sharp glimpse into the pain some folk worldwide endure”.

She said taking part in the show had taught her things about herself, writing: “Until now, I had no idea I could find a mental space where I could calmly climb down the side of a skyscraper and then slide out on a pole, unlocking stars, as the cars below on the street felt the size of ants.

“I had no idea it was possible to be shown an American football helmet and be informed I was shortly to be locked in at the neck and filled to the eyebrows with cockroaches, and for me to think ‘OK this is doable, the trick is to breathe’.”

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