Claire Richards: I'm A Celeb rejected me for being 'too thin'

Claire Richards claims she was once rejected for \'I\'m a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!\' because bosses wanted her "to be fat".

The 41-year-old pop star - who has publicly opened up about her weight battle, and slimmed down from a size 20 to 10 since having her two children Charlie, 11 and Daisy, eight - alleges she wasn\'t wanted on the show when they realised she wasn\'t as big as they expected her to be.

Speaking on the \'Official Charts: Take The Hit\' podcast, Claire said: "I went for a meeting [with \'I\'m A Celebrity\'] once, a long, long time ago.

"But it was a time when I\'d just lost quite a lot of weight but they didn\'t realise that I had.

"They wanted me to be fat apparently, that was the excuse I got back, that I was too thin."

However, ITV have hit back at the allegation and claim their show - which follows a group of celebrities living together in an Australian jungle camp without their home comforts - does not discriminate on potential campmates on the basis of the "shape or size".

An ITV spokeswoman said: "\'I\'m A Celebrity\' would never cast campmates based on their shape or size - all celebrities are assessed for their suitability to life in the jungle."

But the \'One For Sorrow\' hitmaker admits she is "glad" she didn\'t go onto the show because she "wouldn\'t last two seconds" in the challenging jungle conditions.

She said: "I\'m glad, because I watch it on TV now and I love it but I know I wouldn\'t last two seconds."

The \'Tragedy\' singer has appeared in a number of other TV competitions and reality shows, finishing fourth place in \'Celebrity Big Brother\' in 2013.