EXCLUSIVE GK Barry rose to fame on TikTok before becoming a firm fan favourite on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! But the star admits she used to be ‘painfully shy’

GK Barry is opening up about life with her footballer girlfriend

After leaving I’m A Celebrity viewers in stitches with her deadpan humour and witty asides, GK Barry walked out of the jungle as the people’s princess. She was arguably the latest series’ biggest winner – going from a lesser-known influencer and podcaster, compared to her celebrity campmates, to a huge telly name with opportunities galore landing at her feet.

GK – real name Grace Keeling – proved such a hit that TV channels, streamers and brands clambered to work with her. Since jetting back from down under, she’s firmly established herself on Loose Women, teased a series with her I’m A Celeb pal Reverend Richard Coles and is about to embark on her own podcast tour.

“Younger me would never, ever believe what I’m doing now, ever,” she admits to OK! in our exclusive catch-up. “Even looking back at the younger me, she would never have been able to do that. It’s a lot about confidence. I faked it a lot.”

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GK is coupled up with footballer Ella Rutherford

Not that you would know from the happy-go-lucky GK everyone now sees. Grace, 25, admits she was “painfully shy” as a child and the only people she could be truly herself around was a close-knit group of friends. “I wasn’t a looker, I’ll be honest with you,” she remembers, in her self-deprecating way. “I was very tall, lanky.

“I tried to look a bit like Amy Winehouse and Amy is the only one that can really pull that off. I was doing crazy makeup looks. I had braces and glasses and it was a lot. I was seen as very weird. I was also very socially awkward so I just couldn’t really speak to people in a normal way. If you’re not (pretty), you have to have a personality. So I started building that up.”

Cambridge-born Grace began posting clips on social media platform TikTok in 2020 while completing a film studies degree at Nottingham Trent University.

GK is the youngest panellist on Loose Women

“I saw that people actually resonated with what I was saying and found me funny, I think that’s where my confidence grew,” explains Grace. “And I could also hide behind the GK Barry persona.” After just a year of posting lifestyle videos, she surpassed one million followers – the start of her meteoric rise.

Her podcast Saving Grace often tops the charts and she’s a hit on Loose Women. She recently presented at the BRIT Awards and there are more TV projects in the works. Her lack of filter is telly gold with a clip of her talking to retired vicar Richard, 63, on I’m A Celeb about her sex life going viral.

“I was definitely educating the nation with scissoring, which I think it needed,” chuckles Grace. She and the Rev have enjoyed a succession of post-show activities, which TV insiders say is being turned into a hilarious reality series with cameras following the pair.

“There may be some stuff in the future with me and Rev that people should look out for,” teases Grace. “He’s like my iconic uncle. We met up the other day, he had a tea and I had a Prosecco. That sums us up.”

GK Barry was in a relationship with a man until splitting earlier last year

If their jungle chat was anything to go by, we’re in for a real treat when their secret project is finally revealed. Until then, we can get our fix of Grace’s hilarious anecdotes on ITV’s Loose Women.

She admits she was worried her potty mouth might get her in trouble on the panel show. “It’s been a good learning curve because I’m able to get my opinions across and not swear,” she explains.

“That was actually difficult for me. The first few episodes, all I could think of was ‘Don’t swear, don’t swear, don’t swear.’

“It was really distracting. Now I think it’s actually quite a good skill that I’ve learned to be able to speak and you don’t have to throw in some sort of f-bomb.”

Born in the same year Loose Women was launched, being the youngest panellist hasn’t stopped Grace from forming close bonds with her more experienced co-stars.

GK is also the host of her podcast Saving Grace

“I’m as old as the show,” she laughs. “I was really scared going into it and I think that probably showed in my first couple of episodes. I wasn’t very opinionated or I wouldn’t get involved in the conversation.

“After spending three weeks in the jungle with Jane Moore, she said, ‘Say your piece.’ So I did. I feel more confident there. It’s the best show I’ve worked on as everyone is so nice.”

Before she went into the jungle, Grace was private about her relationship with Ipswich Town footballer Ella Rutherford, who she met last year. But she became an open book on I’m A Celeb, often at the expense of 24-year-old Ella, who became the talk of the changing rooms.

“Oh my God, there’ve been so many times I’ve embarrassed Ella,” laughs Grace. “I am quite a dramatic person so I’ll over-tell a story. She’s like, ‘I have to go into football. And the people on my team have heard you say that we’ve done some weird thing but it wasn’t like that.’ She’s a professional athlete and I’m just sitting there running my mouth on social media.”

It seems Grace is building her career on “running her mouth”. “I’m learning to not contain it – but I’m definitely learning my social cues. I see the shock on people’s faces. Not everyone is a sexual innuendo type of person,” she says. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘I’ve just said that to an 80-year-old woman.’ So that’s probably not reading the room very well. But most of the time it does land well and it is my personality, so people have to just take it.”

GK is also the host of her podcast Saving Grace

The new love in her life is Noodle, an eight-month-old Asian toy poodle who is keeping Grace and Ella on their toes. Grace says, “Every day at 6am I’ll wake up to him chewing my hair extensions. He sleeps on top of my head in the bed.

“He’s destroying everything. He chewed one of Ella’s really expensive shoes. He just loves to poo all over the floor even though he is toilet trained. So he’s a bundle of joy.”

And she is thoroughly enjoying her life of domestic bliss with Ella. She says, “It’s just really wholesome, I love it. It’s nice because before, I lived alone. It was just a bit boring. So now I feel like I have a purpose.

“I’ve got to get up and walk the dog. Ella’s role is to clean. She’s so good at cleaning. She wears the trousers, I will say that.

“I’ll cook her dinner, hopefully she survives, then we’ll all watch a series in bed. On the weekends I’ll go to her games.”

GK says she finds it difficult to get her head around some days

And, in turn, Ella will be cheering Grace on from the sides when she goes on her UK and Ireland podcast tour later this year.

Grace says, “Every show we have a different special guest from every field of entertainment. There are people you’ve seen me with before, there are people you haven’t. The vibes will be good.”

She is, of course, loving this new-found fame, but she admits she does find it difficult to get her head around some days.

“I get a lot of impostor syndrome. But I am confident in the fact I know I’m good at what I do and I deserve to be where I am. I’m just enjoying every moment of it.”