Martin Roberts claims Larry Lamb bullied him off camera

The British public may have lapped up the antics of jungle patriarch Larry Lamb on I’m A Celebrity – but Martin Roberts reckons we don’t know the half of it.

The Homes Under the Hammer star has sensationally claimed that the EastEnders actor mercilessly bullied him in scenes that ITV hid from viewers, and “tried to destroy” him because he saw him as a rival.

“Larry tried to undermine me and the group and he tried to turn people against me,” the dad of two told The Sunday Mirror. “I’ve heard that he actually said on camera that I was a ‘f***ing lower middle class snob.’ I don’t understand what that is, but clearly it’s not very nice.”

53-year-old Martin also claims that Larry told him to “get out of the way you f***ing t***.”

“It was completely out of the blue,” he explained. “I was like, ‘Larry, whatever you feel about what has happened, this is a family show. If you want to say something bad to me say ‘get out of the way you silly sausage’ because my kids are watching.

“By that time I realised I am never going to get Larry Lamb to like me. Afterwards he kept throwing these really random insults at me. Whenever he could he tried to put me down. I was like, ‘Why are you doing this? What is your end game here?

“Are you trying to destroy me like the bullies used to try and destroy me? Because you are not going to do that mate, because I’m a bigger and better person than I was then.”

Martin, who has previously opened up about five years of torment during his schooldays at the hands of bullies who picked on him about his weight, said his time Down Under with Larry brought the bad old days flooding back.

“One thing that hurt most was when he was interviewed after a challenge and I heard him say: ‘He doesn’t need to win, because he’s a porker and he doesn’t need the food.’ The day before, I talked about how I was badly bullied because I was fat, so Larry heard all of that.

“He heard the start of it, then stood up in the middle and started tending the fire, which is how much he respected me. He didn’t at all.”

Martin also insists that 69-year-old Larry was JEALOUS when he started to get more and more attention from fellow campers.

“Larry set up this nice little environment where he was king of the jungle, they were all his family,” he explains. “He was the patriarch and I came along and, as Sam said, ‘We all gravitated towards you.’”

“Larry didn’t like that, he wanted to be the centre of attention. He probably thought he was going to win but he was never going to.”