They’ve been thrown together in the Australian jungle for I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!.

And John Barrowman, 51, and Harry Redknapp, 71, have struck up the ‘loveliest’ of friendships as the pair shared the stories of how they both met their partners.

Former Birmingham City manager, Harry, revealed how his wife of 54 years, Sandra, picked him over his ‘good looking’ friend when meeting in a East End dance club called Two Puddings.

Speaking to his camp-mate, the father of former footballer Jamie Redknapp, explained: ‘Me and my mate Macca, he was a goalkeeper for West Ham, saw these two lovely girls and I said to Macca shall we have a dance with those two.

‘Macca is a good looking geezer and I look back on it now and think Sandra must have seen us both coming over and thought “I hope I ain’t got him” (referring to himself) and she went for me, 54 years later we’re still going strong.’

The uncle of Chelsea legend Frank Lampard laughed: ‘And Macca ended up as an undertaker so really Sandra had the better deal in the long term.’

John, who had been collecting wood for the camp with Harry, then recalled how his first date with his husband Scott, who he has been with for the last 27 years, was a star-studded affair - with singing sensation Cher tagging along.

‘I was in Sunset Boulevard at the time and I invited Scott to come and see me and we’d then go out for a meal,’ the Broadway star explained.

He added: ‘That night we were meant to go out, I get a call from someone who said they had Cher on the line.

‘She’d seen the show the night before and wanted to take me out for dinner. I said “that’s amazing, but I can’t go”.’

But not one for being refused, Cher had a better idea: ‘I spoke to Cher and told her why and she said no one had ever turned her down before so bring Scott along. So our first date was with Cher,’ John revealed.

Talking in the Bush Telegraph, John said of his chat with the ex-footballer: ‘We needed to get wood for the campfire so Harry and I went down to collect some wood and we had one of the loveliest talks I’ve had in a long time.’

While Harry cheekily added: ‘While John was having dinner with Cher I was with Sandra at the Two Puddings, I know who got the best of the deal.’ 

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues on Wednesday November 21, ITV1 at 9:00pm.