For millions of viewers, Tom Read Wilson is a charming yet late arrival to the I’m A Celebrity jungle — a gentleman with a velvet accent, an expansive vocabulary, and an elegance that somehow feels from another era.

But to Charlie Collins, who has known him since she was four years old, Tom is something far more precious: “the boy who grew into everyone’s safe place.”

As the nation debated whether Tom’s polished speech was “real” or “put on,” Charlie decided to share the version of Tom she has loved for 34 years — a version the cameras have only begun to capture.

The Bond that Predates Memory: “My First Kiss”

Charlie’s post begins with a meaningful photo: Tom laughing mid-stride in a suit in a field, radiating exactly the kind of whimsical joy viewers now adore.

Her caption reveals a lifetime of stories: “Tom was my first kiss — and I still joke I might be the reason he never looked twice at girls again.”

She recalls school plays where Tom’s voice soared above the crowd, evenings when he’d practice scales while she played downstairs, and the countless times he chose kindness over convenience.

The Tom the World Deserves to Know: The “Dose of Sunlight” Mission

While I’m A Celeb fans see Tom quoting poetry and calming campmates with Shakespearean charm, Charlie describes something even deeper:

The Tom who never says no when someone asks for help.

The Tom who once turned up to a tiny shop in December just to sing Christmas songs and make staff smile.

The Tom who volunteers to read to children at her sister’s school because “stories matter.”

The Tom who stood up at her wedding and delivered a poem that made the whole room cry with laughter.

She writes: “Tom fills every space with gentleness. He spoils his mum, he spoils my mum, and he somehow makes everyone feel like they are the only person in the room.”

A Soul of a Generation: A Rare Kind of Spirit

Charlie also shared Tom’s profound love for his family. “He adores his mum — champagne lunches, long chats, stories that leave her glowing.” It’s the kind of sweetness that rarely makes it onto primetime television, yet explains why viewers find him impossible not to fall for.

“The world can be frightening… but Tom is a dose of sunlight.”

Charlie’s most moving words come near the end: “Watching him sing snakes into calm, or recite sonnets in the bathing pond like some mythical river spirit… it’s like seeing the purest parts of childhood shine through an adult.”

She calls him: “the yolk to our egg — the warm centre that holds everything together.” And then, with the enthusiasm of a lifelong friend rooting from the sidelines: “Tom for the win.”

Beyond the polished accent, these details paint a fuller picture: a man shaped by love, theatre, and a lifelong instinct to lift others up. Thanks to Charlie’s heartfelt message, fans now see Tom Read Wilson with new eyes.

Not just a character. Not just a voice. But a once-in-a-generation kind of soul — the kind who makes the jungle a little softer, and the world a little brighter.