GK Barry left traumatised by girlfriend's hospitalisation before I'm A Celeb appearance

Loose Women panellist and TikTok sensation GK Barry has shared a distressing experience she had while visiting her girlfriend in hospital.

Speaking on the Saving Grace podcast on YouTube, GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, recounted an incident that occurred during a visit to her partner, footballer Ella Rutherford, affectionately known as Eyelashes.

The 25-year-old internet star, who is set to appear on the 2024 series of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, revealed that her partner had recently undergone surgery, reports the Daily Record.

GK admitted that she hadn't "really" been in a hospital environment before, except for when she visited her grandfather on a ward when she was younger, and didn't have the anxiety she experiences now.

She said: "Dunno what's happened but it's got a lot worse - mentally ill. And yeah, so anyway, so I go pick Eyelashes up from the hospital and she...I walk in and she's in the bed.

"She's in her own little room and she's in the bed and I think she just looks so f*****g sweet, like her little baby hairs are everywhere."

She added: "I just think, yeah like bless her. We're like, in the bed having a cuddle and then suddenly, I'm like, 'F******g hell, this room's a bit hot; very hot in here and then I'm hearing like beeping, beeping, and then I'm hearing nurses scuttling about.

"And before you know it, I'm having a panic attack. I'm not even there for a reason. I'm there to pick her up. I'm like out the bed, like manually breathing like, 'Babe, we've got to go'."

GK recounted her experience when she went to collect her girlfriend from the hospital, only to end up in a state of distress herself.

She vividly described how her girlfriend still had a drip in, while she frantically tried to catch her breath in the toilet, perching on the sink in an attempt to "get like air from the top" due to the overwhelming heat in the room.

She further narrated the moment a nurse stumbled upon her, mistaking her for a patient: "The nurse walks in; she thinks I'm the patient so she's going, 'I'm here to check if...' I'm going, 'It's not me; it's not me. F*****g hell', and she's like, 'What are you talking about?' And then she sees Ella and she goes, 'Oh', like what?"

According to GK, the nurse simply shut the door on her. GK then said she felt the nurse should have offered her something to calm down, such as "Xanax".

GK eventually stepped outside, seemingly recovering from the earlier ordeal. But her relief was short-lived when the sight of a "woman with a feeding tube" triggered her again.

She concluded by sharing that ultimately, they returned home, but it was her girlfriend who drove back, and later took GK to the doctor as she was suffering with tonsillitis at the time.