Fresh from his I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! victory, AngryGinge is still adjusting to a reality he never expected — one where he’s suddenly being described as a heartthrob.
Crowned King of the Jungle after what many fans are calling one of the strongest finals in the show’s history, the YouTube star — real name Morgan Burtwistle, 24 — has stepped out of the Australian jungle into an entirely new level of attention.
And it’s not just about the crown.
In the days since his win, Ginge has found himself the subject of a surprising new narrative: a post-jungle glow-up that’s left fans swooning and social media buzzing.
Speaking candidly after the finale, he admitted the reaction caught him completely off guard.
He never expected to be labelled a modern sex symbol, he said — though he laughed that perhaps the jungle look worked in his favour.
The attention has reached far beyond his own phone. Ginge revealed that his mum, Michelle — who raised him and his sister Tasha on a council estate in Manchester — has been receiving messages herself, with admirers flooding her Facebook inbox to tell her how attractive her son now looks.
For Ginge, the moment feels surreal — especially given what he was dealing with before entering the jungle.
Just days before flying out, he revealed that his then-girlfriend ended their relationship by text while he was live-streaming. The breakup stunned fans and left him entering the show emotionally bruised rather than buoyant.
Since then, fellow creators have added fuel to the conversation. In a livestream clip that later went viral, YouTubers Tays and Scousemali suggested that Ginge once joked he was going into the jungle hoping to meet someone special.
But behind the humour, Ginge says the experience was far tougher than viewers realised.
Shortly after arriving in camp, he admits he seriously questioned whether he could continue. After leaving the Bush Telegraph, he sat alone by the pond, weighing up whether he had the strength to last the full two weeks.
In the end, he stayed — and powered through moments of homesickness and emotional overload that later played out on screen.
His motivation, he says, was never fame or romance.
It was his mum.
Growing up, money was tight. Michelle worked multiple jobs to support the family, and when Ginge was 18, she was forced to sell their home and move somewhere cheaper. To help ease the burden, he temporarily moved in with his nana nearby.
Those memories stayed with him in the jungle.
He says he has never forgotten where he came from — a background shaped by graft, resilience and people doing everything they could to get by.
Winning the show, for him, was about proving something much simpler than success.
He wanted to make his mum proud.
And when he told her he’d won, her response meant more than the crown ever could. She reminded him she was already proud — long before the jungle, the votes, or the title of King.
It’s a quiet truth that has resonated with fans just as deeply as his dramatic victory.
Because for AngryGinge, the real transformation wasn’t about becoming a heartthrob.
It was about coming home knowing exactly who he did it for.