In the glittering chaos of the Australian jungle, where celebrities battle bugs and Bushtucker Trials for survival, one voice has risen above the din like a sonnet in the wilderness: Tom Read Wilson. The 34-year-old poet, podcaster, and accidental heartthrob has emerged as I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’s undisputed breakout star of the 2025 season, captivating 11 million viewers with his velvety Received Pronunciation accent, Shakespearean flourishes, and an unshakeable kindness that turns even the grumpiest campmate into a puddle of affection. But as Tom navigates the show’s final weeks—currently polling as a frontrunner for the crown—his childhood friend of three decades has stepped forward with a revelation that strips away the TV gloss. In an emotional Instagram tribute that’s racked up over 200,000 likes, Charlie Collins paints an intimate portrait of the man behind the microphone: a gentle giant who sings carols to shop clerks, pens wedding poems that leave crowds in tears, and holds fractured families together with quiet, luminous grace. “Tom isn’t just the velvet voice of the jungle,” Charlie writes. “He’s the rare kind of person whose smallest gestures reveal the biggest heart.” As fans rally with #TomForTheWin trending nationwide, this glimpse into Tom’s softer side isn’t just fodder for watercooler chats—it’s a reminder that true charisma blooms from authenticity, not artifice.

Tom Read Wilson’s jungle odyssey began in earnest on November 17, 2025, when the London-born wordsmith zipped into the I’m A Celebrity camp amid a swirl of helicopters and hype. Thrust into the spotlight alongside heavyweights like This Morning’s Holly Willoughby (returning for a redemption arc) and EastEnders’ Danny Dyer, Tom quickly became the show’s emotional anchor. His trial debut—a stomach-churning “Viper Vault” where he recited limericks while dangling over a snake pit—earned him the moniker “Poet of Peril,” with 4.2 million live viewers tuning in. But it’s his off-camera moments that have sealed his status: comforting teary campmate Alan Halsall with bespoke haikus, mediating squabbles with the diplomacy of a Regency-era diplomat, and delivering nightly fireside yarns that blend Dickensian drama with dad-joke whimsy. “He makes the jungle feel like a salon,” gushed co-host Ant McPartlin during a recent episode, while Dec Donnelly quipped, “Tom’s the only one who could make eating a witchetty grub sound like a sonnet.”

Yet, for all his on-screen poise, questions have swirled about the authenticity of Tom’s ornate lexicon. Is it a posh put-on, honed for podcasts like My Mate’s a Poet (where he’s interviewed literary luminaries from Carol Ann Duffy to Benjamin Zephaniah), or the genuine echo of his upbringing? Tom set the record straight in a candid chat with rapper Aitch, crediting his father, Crispin Read Wilson, a beloved English teacher who “turned language into music.” “I’m not a poet, but I love the lyricism of it all,” Tom confessed, his eyes misting as he recalled family dinners devolving into wordplay battles. Born in 1991 to a French-teacher mother, Juliette, and the aforementioned Crispin, Tom grew up in a Hertfordshire home where books outnumbered siblings (he’s one of three, with sister Miranda often cited as his “first audience”). The family’s dynamic wasn’t without its complexities—Tom’s parents’ romance began with a scandalous 20-year age gap when Juliette was an 18-year-old pupil at Crispin’s school, a tale he unpacked with disarming candor on Channel 4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown earlier this year. Though they separated when Tom was young (Crispin remarried, but the bond endures), the split forged in him a fierce loyalty to both parents. “I adore her,” he’s said of Juliette, whose “fiery, mischievous spirit” he channels in his own irreverent charm. Juliette herself flew to Australia mid-series for a morale-boosting visit, chuckling to ITV cameras that her son “was born with a dictionary in his mouth”—though she admitted struggling to keep up with his more labyrinthine locutions.

Enter Charlie Collins, the 34-year-old graphic designer and lifelong confidante who’s known Tom since they were gap-toothed four-year-olds swapping jam sandwiches at a Hertfordshire playgroup. Their mothers bonded over PTA meetings, forging a friendship that saw Charlie and Tom through scraped knees, schoolyard crushes, and the awkward alchemy of adolescence. In a Thursday Instagram post that’s since gone supernova—reposted by I’m A Celebrity’s official account and dissected on every podcast from The One Show to Dish—Charlie delivers what she calls “the most intimate portrait yet” of the man television has only begun to unpack. “He’s the warm, glowing centre that holds everything—and everyone—together,” she begins, her words a tapestry of tender anecdotes that humanize the hyphenate star (poet-podcaster-presenter, with a side hustle in voiceover work for luxury ads). Charlie recalls afternoons where young Tom would lock himself in his room to “practice scales,” his voice a budding baritone that later graced school productions of Les Misérables and The Sound of Music. She teases him as her “first kiss”—a playground peck that, in her cheeky words, “may be the reason he never looked twice at girls again”—but pivots to profounder truths: Tom’s innate ability to make strangers feel seen, turning fleeting encounters into forever memories.

The post’s emotional core lies in Charlie’s litany of Tom’s “small, luminous gestures,” the quiet heroics that define his character off the red carpet. Picture this: a harried Christmas Eve in a cramped corner shop, where Tom—scarf askew, arms laden with last-minute gifts—belts out carols to the lone cashier, transforming her exhaustion into giggles. Or the time he volunteered at Charlie’s sister’s primary school, reading Roald Dahl aloud with such theatrical verve that a room of wriggly six-year-olds hung on his every syllable, because “stories matter.” Then there are the wedding poems: bespoke verses so hilariously heartfelt they’ve left bridal parties in stitches one moment and sobs the next, with grooms texting Charlie at 2 a.m. for revisions. “He doesn’t do it for applause,” she insists. “He does it because it delights.” And family? Tom’s the glue—ferrying Juliette to “champagne lunches” just to see her sparkle, or mediating Miranda’s post-university meltdowns with mixtapes of Morrissey and Maya Angelou. In the jungle, these traits manifest as Tom draping a blanket over a shivering Oti Mabuse or penning a group limerick to lift spirits after a trial flop. “It’s the purest parts of childhood shining through an adult body,” Charlie muses, a line that’s spawned endless TikTok edits syncing Tom’s camp clips to ethereal indie tracks.

Charlie’s tribute arrives at a pivotal moment for Tom, whose jungle stint has catapulted him from niche literary circles to national treasure status. Pre-I’m A Celebrity, he was a fixture in the UK’s spoken-word scene—founder of the My Mate’s a Poet live events that draw sellout crowds to Soho theatres, where he’s emceed everyone from Hollie McNish to George the Poet. His podcast, a Sunday Times Top 10 staple, has amassed 50 million downloads, blending interviews with original verses that tackle everything from heartbreak to heritage (Tom’s paternal grandfather was a WWII codebreaker, a fact he weaves into odes on resilience). Post-show prospects? Whispers of a BBC poetry anthology series, a cameo in Netflix’s Bridgerton spin-off (his accent screams “Regency rake”), and even a children’s book deal based on his Dahl-esque readings. But Tom’s stayed grounded, using his platform for good: last year, he auctioned a custom poem for a queer youth charity, raising £15,000, and he’s vocal about mental health, sharing how poetry pulled him through a “wobbly” early-20s phase of auditions and rejections.

The response to Charlie’s post has been a tidal wave of adoration, with #TomReadWilson surging to the top UK trend on X (formerly Twitter) within hours. Fans, many of whom first clocked Tom via viral clips of him serenading baristas with sonnets, flooded comments with their own tales: “He read a poem at my gran’s wake—stranger, but made us laugh through tears,” one user shared, amassing 10K likes. Celeb endorsements poured in—I’m A Celeb alum Joel Dommett called it “the mic-drop tribute we needed,” while poet Lemn Sissay tweeted, “Tom’s heart is his best rhyme. Charlie nailed it.” Even the show’s producers nodded approval, teasing a “surprise guest” episode featuring Juliette reciting one of Tom’s early scribbles. Critics, however, have noted the irony: in a series built on manufactured drama, Tom’s organic appeal feels like a breath of fresh air, challenging the “posh prick” trope that once dogged his public image.

As the jungle crown looms—odds now at 3/1 for Tom to pip Danny Dyer at the post—Charlie’s portrait reframes him not as a fleeting fame-chaser, but a timeless soul whose empathy endures beyond the eliminations. “Tom for the win,” she signs off, a rallying cry that’s echoed in fan art, petition drives for a poetry slot on The One Show, and even a Change.org plea for “more Tom in our lives.” In an era of scripted sincerity, Tom Read Wilson reminds us that the most compelling stories are the ones lived, not performed—whispered in champagne toasts, belted in carols, or etched in poems that heal. For the boy who once warbled scales to an empty room, the jungle’s roar is just another stage. And with friends like Charlie illuminating the wings, his spotlight’s only getting brighter.