Cerys returns home from the jungle insisting 'I can't wait to see Marc'

Viewers of the show who'd watched the growing love affair between the two have started to doubt the true depth of their feelings after Bannerman failed to fly out to Australia to meet Matthews when she left the jungle.

Following their seeming reluctance to be seen together since, the onscreen romance between Miss Matthews and Bannerman was being denounced in some quarters as nothing more than a publicity-seeking ploy.

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But as the singer arrived at London's Heathrow Airport today she insisted that her first priority had to be her children, who were travelling with her.

She said: "I'm very excited to see Marc. I can't wait to see him. But my first priority was my children. They're just babies and I had to sort them out first."

Responding to suggestions that she had lapped up the after show hospitality rather than rush home for a reunion with Bannerman, she said: "I didn't go to any parties. I was just getting my children sorted and then we've been flying since Sunday."

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Asked about her hopes for a long-lasting relationship with the former EastEnders star, she smiled coyly and said: "It's so special I just want to keep it a bit quiet."

She said she was "excited" to be home, looking forward to seeing her friends and family and pleased to have taken part in "a really fun programme".

She said that she and the children will return to her home in Wales today and refused to divulge whether she had any plans to meet Bannerman.

Another of the show's contestants, former Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson, arrived on a later flight accompanied by a friend but she did not stop to speak to waiting reporters.

The show finished last Friday night, when pantomime star Christopher Biggins was named King of the Jungle, and viewers had been transfixed by the growing onscreen romance between Cerys and Marc.

Since leaving the show, the pair are thought to have raked in more than £100,000 from separate interviews in which each has declared their love for the other.

And they stand to match that sum with magazine and TV interviews when they finally appear together as a couple.

Strangely, Bannerman, 34, turned down a return flight to Australia to be reunited with Miss Matthews when she was voted off the show on Thursday.

Despite promising the former drug addict that he would be there to meet her when she left, if that was what she wanted.

Instead, he has been lying low in London after splitting from his humiliated girlfriend Footballer's Wives star Sarah Matravers, who last week promptly moved out of the home they shared together after seeing the growing closeness unfold onscreen between her boyfriend of nearly three years and his campmate of two weeks.

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And Miss Matthews, 38, who admitted she struggled to contain her feelings for Marc and was desperately in love, stayed on in Australia to lap up the post-show hospitality and did not leave until today.

She has already made at least £50,000 from spilling the beans about their time in the I'm A Celebrity camp together.

Pictured in revealing underwear for the accompanying interview with a Sunday newspaper, she revealed: "We had a loaded kiss, most definitely. That was the thunderbolt moment.

"We wanted to do more, but it wasn't the right time or place."

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And Cerys admitted both she and Marc realised they'd gone too far that night under the stars – knowing his girlfriend star Sarah was watching back in London.

Cerys said: "Marc was tactile with everyone so we'd hugged right from the beginning.

"But we'd overstepped the mark that night. I'd gone to bed and he came and sat on it and said, 'Aren't the stars beautiful?'.

"As we lay there we could hear cicadas, crickets and frogs all around us...and I know we realised we were feeling something special for each other.

But it was crossing the line because he had a girlfriend, and I knew he had a girlfriend."

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Former EastEnders actor Bannerman has said in an interview: "I hope we can have children together. I don't know what love at first sight is but I had the most intense feeling."

A show insider said the pair have shared "lots of phone calls" and that Bannerman left a note for Miss Matthews in which he said he had "fallen hook, line and sinker for her".

But yesterday viewers began airing their suspicions about the relationship.

One wrote on a website: "Maybe their careers are flagging and needed a kickstart."

Another said: "If this was true love he would have been waiting for her at the hotel. I think this speaks volumes."