A touching moment on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! left the Paddy Kirk actor visibly moved, as it showcased the real character of his Emmerdale co-star.
One of the most moving moments of I’m A Celebrity 2025 had Emmerdale star Dominic Brunt reaching for the tissues, as it offered “a real insight” into his on-screen wife, Lisa Riley. Dominic, who plays Paddy Kirk in the soap, described Lisa as “a force of nature” and said the heartfelt scene revealed her true personality.
The moment came when Lisa gently encouraged campmate Jack Osbourne to open up about the death of his father, Black Sabbath singer Ozzy. She also shared her own grief over losing her beloved mum, Cath, creating a quiet but powerful connection between them. Dominic, who portrays Lisa’s husband in Emmerdale, recognised this compassionate side of her.
“I thought the first time she sat with Jack was a real insight into the real Lisa,” he told The Mirror. “She notices things others don’t and is incredibly empathetic. The moment she sat down with him, I thought, ‘this is really going to be special.’”
“You know, two people who have experienced a lot of loss in their lives. I don’t think Lisa will ever get over losing her mum.”
Before heading into the jungle, Lisa revealed she was taking part in the show to honour her mum, who passed away from cancer in 2012. She said: “I can’t help feeling that maybe it’s my mum in heaven sending me a message to do the show. She’d be saying, ‘Go on, knock them dead and just have fun.’”
Soap star Dominic Brunt, who plays Paddy Kirk opposite Mandy Dingle, was the only person Lisa confided in about her jungle plans besides her partner. She shared the secret with him months before the lineup was publicly announced.
“I thought, if you’re telling me, I’m not even going to tell my wife,” Dominic explained. “I never keep secrets from my wife, so it felt very unusual. But it was fantastic — really exciting as well.”
Lisa initially called Dominic while he was on set to get his opinion about joining the camp, before letting him know she had already decided to take part.
“She phoned me one day,” he recalls. “She said she’d been asked to do the jungle and wasn’t sure what to do, and asked my thoughts. I said, ‘You’d be brilliant. You should go for it.’ Later, she told me, ‘Actually, I’m doing it.’ I was really honoured she confided in me. We’ve had a very close relationship since 1997, and the fact that only me and her partner knew made me feel trusted.”
He was also very aware of how quickly news could spread on a busy soap set. “We work in an environment full of actors, and secrets rarely stay secret. I just thought, I’d better keep it to myself,” he laughs.
Before heading into the jungle, Lisa joked that she might “go full Mandy Dingle” if exhaustion and hunger got the better of her — something that seemed very likely given the conditions.
However, Dominic reassured fans they shouldn’t expect to see Mandy storming around the camp every evening.
“I’ve very rarely seen that side of her,” he says. “She’s not moody at all. She’s naturally upbeat, and the only time you might notice her quiet is when she’s really tired.”
Dominic, who has played Paddy since 1997, first married Mandy on screen in 1999. After years apart, the pair eventually remarried in a 2024 storyline.
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