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I’m a Celebrity: How old is evicted contestant Beverley Callard and is she vegan?

Hollie Arnold and Beverley Callard (ITV)
Hollie Arnold and Beverley Callard (ITV)

Coronation Street star Beverley Callard is the latest contestant to be evicted from this year’s series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

The actor, mental health advocate and aerobics instructor is best-known as longtime barmaid Liz McDonald on the popular ITV soap.

You may have also seen her as Flo Henshaw in Two Pints of Lager in a Packet of Crisps.

For a few weeks – along with stars including EastEnders actor Shane Richie and Radio 1 DJ Jordan North – she took up residency at a derelict castle in north Wales.

Callard faced the Frights of the Round Table challenge with Richie and North. However, as a vegan, she did not have to eat animal products like her fellow contestants.

She came under some scrutiny for this, but revealed during her exit interview that she became vegan in March following an operation.

Read more: The latest 2020 I’m a Celebrity odds

Some background on her career so far: Callard was born in Morley, Yorkshire, on 28 March 1957. She made her TV debut in 1983, as Angie Richards in some early episodes of Emmerdale.

She then scored a one-episode part as character June Dewhurst on Coronation Street in 1984, later returning as new character Liz McDonald in 1989.

Callard has since become one of the best-known faces on the soap, with storylines involving kidnapping, abuse and infidelity.

She left last year to pursue other projects, having also taken a break in 2016 to deal with clinical depression. Her final Coronation Street scenes will air in 2021.

Among Callard’s other passions are advocating for mental health support: she has worked extensively with the charity Mind to raise awareness surrounding mental health issues and depression.

Read more: Who is I’m a Celebrity’s Jordan North?

She is also known for her fitness video past, one DVD of which is said to have knocked Michael Mann film Heat off the top of the home entertainment charts.

Callard has been married for 10 years after having tied the knot in October 2010. Her current husband is her fourth. The actor first married in 1974 to Paul Atkinson, the father to her only daughter Rebecca. The actor then had a second child Joshua with her third husband who she later divorced in 2001.

Callard reminisced on the fitness videos when her fellow I’m a Celebrity contestant Jordan North said he remembers his mum exercising to them when he was younger.

I’m a Celebrity continues each night on ITV from 9pm.