Grace Keeling, also known as GK Barry, has shared her coming out story with fellow contestants on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! The TikTok star and podcaster spoke candidly about her footballer girlfriend Ella Rutherford in a recent episode, after the show’s 24th season kicked off on November 17.
When asked about coming out by radio presenter Dean McCullough, GK Barry explained: “Online I’ve been like, ‘Yeah I’d slept with girls or whatever as well’, but I’d only dated men. And then it was by accident that I found Ella…And then I really liked her, first day I met her.”
However, she had never told her parents about her sexuality up to that point.
“I’d mentioned, ‘Oh I’m just going to see my friend Ella’, or ‘I’m staying around Ella’s’, so they’d heard her name. And then they came down to visit me at my house and Ella was there – they were speaking to her and then we got in the car because I was dropping them to the train station and they were like ‘Who is Ella?’ and I was like, ‘That’s my girlfriend’.”
Her parents didn’t bat an eyelid, simply replying, “Oh, cool,” she explained. “They just love her, never had an issue with it.”
This wasn’t surprising to Grace. “To be fair, I feel like the closet may have been glass,” she joked. “They’ve always said, ‘Whoever you end up with, we do not care. Girl, boy, whatever, as long as they’re not a d*ck.”
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Her campmates responded positively to her story, with TV presenter Jane Moore saying: “All you ever want is for your kids to be happy. It doesn’t matter who it’s with.”
GK Barry has quickly become a fan favourite on the new season of I’m A Celeb due to her hilarious bushtucker trials and reactions to the jungle’s creepy crawlies. The show airs in Ireland every day from 9pm on Virgin Media, and can be watched back on the player.
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