I’m A Celebrity 2021: Naughty Boy’s Deal or No Deal jackpot win led to music success

Naughty Boy looked back on his experience on the show (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

While I’m A Celebrity star Naughty Boy is known for his illustrious music career, he quite literally hit the jackpot before he ever became famous.

The star – real name Shahid Khan – appeared on the game show, hosted by former I’m A Celebrity star Noel Edmonds, in 2007.

Chatting to his campmates, Naughty Boy, 40, looked back on the experience and explained: ‘When I spoke to the Banker, he was trying to get me to settle.

‘I wanted to take a risk. I settled on £44,000 and beat him. I had £10 in my bank account [before that]. I had to quit my job at Domino’s, they said I wouldn’t be able to come back [after filming]. And I said, “Well, I quit.”‘

He added: ‘I was 23. I gave £15,000 to my mum and dad and the rest I bought an Audi A3 and built a shed studio and then a year later I met Emeli [Sandé] at a showcase in East London. I didn’t even know who she was.

‘When she sung, I swear, I just thought she was singing to me. It was some kind of love. She’s my musical soulmate. That was the first meeting… she said the minute she met me she just trusted me.’

Naughty Boy appeared on the show in 2007 (Picture: Channel 4 / YouTube)

He added: ‘Deal or No Deal gave me the confidence to speak to people that I didn’t know and do it by just being myself. You don’t realise what these little experiences do for you.’

Naughty Boy has had a difficult time of it on the show so far, after he was voted for multiple Bushtucker Trials.

The music producer threatened to leave at one point, with Richard Madeley recalling that he spent hours consoling him.

The 65-year-old wrote for the Express: ’A dejected Naughty wasn’t delivered back to clink until the small hours, and we were up with him until close to dawn trying to comfort him and talk him out of walking off the show.

‘See what I mean about bonding? Why not just go to bed and let the stranger stew?

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‘In the end I gave him a massive hug and told him that the small hours are the worst time to make any kind of decision other than whether you should get up for a pee, and he agreed to sleep on it.’

However, he eventually decided to stay.

I’m A Celebrity continues Friday at 9pm on ITV.

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