When A-list actress Sigrid Thornton and comedian Geraldine Hickey opened up about being diagnosed with ADHD as adults on the January 27 episode of I’m a Celebrity Australia 2025, the South African jungle got a whole lot realer.
Adding to the emotions, co-host Julia Morris also spoke publicly for the first time about her own journey with ADHD.
Between the laughs and the viper rooms, its moments like these on I’m a Celebrity that remind us of the real people behind the big celeb names. Here’s a quick recap of what happened, and what we learned.
Sigrid and Geraldine open up about their adult ADHD diagnosis
Gathered at the I’m a Celebrity 2025 basecamp with fellow contestants Dave Hughes and Samantha Moitzi, Geraldine and Sigrid shared a heartfelt exchange, bonding over how their recent ADHD diagnoses brought much-needed clarity to their lives.
“If I looked at my bingo card for 2025, having a shared experience in a South African jungle with Sigrid Thornton about ADHD… Yeah, it wasn’t there,” said Geraldine in her Tok Tokkie.
Sigrid described her diagnosis as a pivotal moment in understanding herself. “At my age, being diagnosed was really just about clarity,” she said.
“It is a sort of watershed thing, because it gives you some clarity and also just understanding a lot of things dropped into place.”
Sigrid got teary as she spoke candidly about her struggles with following through on personal commitments, and the regret she’s carried because of it.
“This is a source of my shame,” she admitted
“It’s not really being able to follow through with the people I care about…. It always caused me terrible embarrassment that I couldn’t keep up with all of those demands… It’s a big burden.”
“It’s actually really great to understand it,” Sigrid reflected in her own Tok Tokkie. “It really moved me to hear that I wasn’t alone.”
For Geraldine, whose struggles in school and, later, university, deeply affected her self-perception, even culminating in a stay in a psychiatric unit that later inspired her comedy, the diagnosis was equally and profoundly significant.
“Some people have talked about [how] you mourn for your life that you could have had,” she explained to the group. “For me, the first solo stand up show that I ever did is about that week that I was in that hospital.”
“So getting that diagnosis is a huge validation of who you are and [that] you’re not dumb. You’re actually quite incredible because you’re a very successful human being with this silly brain that you’ve got.”
Julia Morris shares her ADHD experience, too
The episode struck another chord when Julia spoke about her own ADHD diagnosis at 56 — something she described as “super confronting.”
“I have not talked about that publicly,” she shared during a commentary segment alongside co-host Robert Irwin. “It’s been an intense process.”
Julia praised Sigrid and Geraldine’s openness, saying, “I love that my children will be home watching these celebrities, because it does mean there are going to be children and adults at home going, ‘God, I think that way.’”
She also related to Sigrid’s experience with friendships, revealing her own struggles: “My friends that have gone by the wayside because they just gave up on ever getting a return message.”
“It’s great to hear some of those exact things talked about. I think it helps.”
Seriously, what a brave bunch! Who’d have thought I’m a Celebrity would get us all in our feelings like this?
