Comedian Mel Buttle had been a great source of laughs for many of the other celebs in the jungle but after new arrival Pettifleur Berenger spotted a snake near the camp, Mel’s ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) went into overdrive.

It was a brief sighting, but it was enough for Mel to begin to question how much longer she wanted to stay in camp.

“When Pettifleur saw the snake we had only met her quite recently,” Mel told 10 play over the phone, “so people were like oh she’s joking, it’s not real, maybe it’s not a snake, she probably doesn’t know what a snake is… but, she knows.”

After Pettifleur described the snake she saw to her campmates they believed it to be a Blue-bellied black snake which, when it feels threatened, is known to strike and — if bitten — can inject a highly toxic venom into its victims.

“Once it became obvious to me that it was a real snake and what kind of snake it was I was on red alert. I had to keep my guard up, I wasn’t going to sleep,” Mel said.

“From then, my mind just would not let the idea go that I was going to wake up covered in 16 snakes. I just couldn’t get over my phobia at that point once it became real and there was one quite close to where we sleep.”

It was then Mel made the decision to end her time in the camp, tearfully telling the other celebs she would be leaving immediately.

“I have been losing my mind all day,” she said, adding, “I feel like s**t doing this but, I have to go, unfortunately.”

Campmates rushed to reassure Mel and support her, as she apologised to her fellow red team members.

“The hard bit about leaving is not what I thought it would be,” Mel told 10 play. “Everything, every trial is linked to winning food for your team…I was like, if I leave they’re going to be one person down, maybe this stuffs them up for trials.”

Feeling like she was letting her team down, Mel also said she was surprised at how difficult it was to leave the friends she had made in the short time she had been in the jungle.

“It’s really difficult to explain but it’s an instant bond, it’s different to meeting someone at the pub in the real world,” she said.

The experience was more difficult than Mel expected, having watched the show in the past and knowing other comedians who had also roughed it in previous seasons she admitted to not expecting it to be quite as tough as they had made it out to be.

“I thought there would be a little bit of, you know, showbiz about the food,” Mel said. “I thought, behind the scenes, yes it looks like you’re eating rice and beans but obviously they bring them some food! Um… they do not.

“I was like oh god, this is real.”

Only the third celebrity to say “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” in the show’s seven-year history, following Bernard Tomic and Anthony Mundine.

The moment was one of the most emotional, effecting every member of the camp, but Mel doesn’t think she made the wrong choice.

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I don’t think I regret it, but I really wasn’t prepared for how sad I would feel and how much I would miss everybody,” she said.

“I made the right choice for me based on that day and the snake in camp. Obviously I’m watching the show every night, missing those faces and missing my Toni Pearen, which hurts the most,” she said with a laugh.

“But there’s a McDonald’s drive-thru on the way home so, you know, there are upsides to everything.”

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Airs Sunday to Thursday at 7.30 on Network 10 and 10 play