Spencer Matthews Misses I'm A Celebrity 2025 Due to Guinness World Record Ironman Bid

Spencer Matthews won’t be cheering on his wife Vogue Williams in the Australian jungle this year—not because he doesn’t want to, but because he’s racing against time, distance, and his own body on a mission that could rewrite the record books. On November 20, 2025, as Williams entered the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! camp in Dungay, New South Wales, Matthews was already deep into his third Ironman triathlon of Project Seven, a grueling 21-day challenge spanning seven continents. He’s currently in Cape Town, South Africa, having already finished races in Europe and Arizona, with three more continents left to conquer before the deadline. If he succeeds, he’ll earn a Guinness World Record—but it means missing the most high-profile moment of his wife’s career.

The Ironman That Couldn’t Wait

Matthews, 37, didn’t take on Project Seven as a publicity stunt. It’s the culmination of years of disciplined training, a personal reckoning with endurance, and a quiet obsession with pushing human limits. Each Ironman—3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.195km run—takes 10 to 17 hours to complete. Doing seven in 21 days? That’s not just athletic. It’s borderline superhuman. The schedule leaves no room for detours. No flights rearranged. No delays. Not even for a wife competing on one of the UK’s most-watched reality shows.

“Spencer would want nothing more than to support Vogue in Australia… but both committed to their own projects, and unfortunately the schedules overlap,” a source told The Mirror. That’s the quiet tragedy of modern celebrity life: two people chasing greatness, and greatness doesn’t care about your wedding ring.

A History With the Jungle

There’s a cruel irony here that fans won’t miss. Matthews didn’t just watch I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! from the sidelines—he was once trapped inside it. In 2016, he was removed from the show after admitting he’d taken steroid-based medication to bulk up for a charity boxing match that never happened. “Vanity, I suppose,” he later said. “I had intended to come off the pills gradually, but there was no time.” Production deemed it unsafe. He called it a “serious error of judgement.”

That episode haunted him. He didn’t speak publicly about it for years. Now, he’s the man who once failed the jungle’s rules—and now he’s the man who can’t even get there.

Vogue’s Brave Choice

Meanwhile, Vogue Williams, 37, is facing her own battle. Described by The Tab as “one of the most glam signings” for the 2025 season, she reportedly agonized over leaving her two young children for weeks. The jungle doesn’t allow phones. No FaceTime. No hugs. Just mud, bugs, and bushtucker trials. “She was terrified,” a friend revealed to LADbible. “But she told me, ‘If I don’t do this now, I’ll always wonder what if.’”

She didn’t just sign up for fame. She signed up for fear.

No Reunion, No Live Support

For fans who remember the dramatic reunion scenes of past seasons—when partners flew in for surprise visits, tears streamed down cheeks, and social media exploded—this year will feel strangely hollow. No dramatic bridge walk. No whispered encouragement from the sidelines. Just Williams, alone in the dark, eating kangaroo testicles while Matthews sprints through the streets of Cape Town, heart pounding, muscles screaming, knowing exactly what she’s enduring.

“It’s the least ideal timing imaginable,” The Tab wrote. And they’re right. But maybe that’s the point.

What This Means Beyond the Celebrity Gossip

This isn’t just about a couple missing each other. It’s about the growing chasm between personal ambition and public expectation. We demand celebrities be perfect partners, perfect parents, perfect performers. But we rarely ask: What does it cost them?

Matthews isn’t avoiding his wife. He’s risking his health for a record that will outlive his fame. Williams isn’t abandoning her kids—she’s showing them what courage looks like. And we, the audience, are watching it all unfold without understanding the weight behind it.

When Williams eventually emerges from the jungle, she won’t have Spencer there to hug her. But she’ll have something more: proof that she didn’t just survive the jungle. She conquered it on her own terms.

What’s Next for Project Seven?

Matthews’ next leg takes him to Antarctica—yes, Antarctica—in late November, where temperatures will dip below -10°C and the course will be frozen tundra. After that, he heads to Asia, then Africa (a second continent, since South Africa was his third), and finally North America. The final Ironman is scheduled for December 11. If he finishes, he’ll be the first person ever to complete seven full Ironman races across seven continents in under three weeks.

He won’t be watching the finale of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! live. But he’ll be watching it on a delayed feed, probably after midnight, somewhere in the Arctic Circle, with a protein shake in one hand and a photo of his wife in the other.