Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has revealed how he spent four nights sleeping rough with a tramp in Rottingdean.
The bearded cook was talking to fellow contestants on the ITV1 programme I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
He and nine other stars are camping in the Australian outback under the glare of television cameras. Although the show is raising money for charity, cynics have said the competitors are merely using it to boost their profiles.
Mr Worrall Thompson, who runs the Notting Grill in London and appears on programmes such as Ready Steady Cook, spent his formative years in Hove, he revealed.
He told the others, who include dancer Wayne Sleep, weather forecaster Sian Lloyd and actress Danniella Westbrook, that he had a latchkey childhood in Hove as his mother worked in the shows.
He said he was prone to running away and on one occasion spent four nights sleeping rough with a tramp.
A programme publicist said he also confided teachers also used to put him in a "coal hole" if he misbehaved.
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