Kadeena Cox reveals who she wants to win I’m A Celeb after getting OBE from King
The King told Paralympic gold medallist Kadeena Cox ‘there’s no ends to your talents’ as she received an OBE at Windsor Castle, she said.
Paralympic gold medal athlete Kadeena Cox has revealed who she wants to win I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! after she was praised by the King at a Windsor Castle honours ceremony.
Cox, 31, who won two golds for Great Britain at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, received her OBE for services to athletics and cycling from Charles at the investiture event.
Tory MPs Sir Robert Buckland and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, novelist Anthony Horowitz, singer Pauline Black, chef Angela Hartnett and boxer Lauren Price were among those who also picked up honours.
After the ceremony, Cox, who appeared on ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity in 2021, backed comedian Babatunde Aleshe to win the current season and took a swipe at his campmate, former health secretary Matt Hancock.
“He’s asking the questions the whole nation wants to know.
“He’s calling out Matt Hancock and we’re all here for it, he’s just a funny guy.”
“Owen (Warner) is also great but he needs to stop moaning about how hungry he is, like, make yourself a bean burger and be quiet,” Cox added, laughing.
It was Charles’s first major investiture since becoming King in September. He held a smaller investiture at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in October.
Cox, from Salford, said she was especially excited to receive her award from the King after recently missing an opportunity to see him at Buckingham Palace while on holiday in Mauritius.
She said: “It was really exciting, I was hoping I would get to have King Charles just because I was meant to see him at Buckingham Palace the other day with all the other Olympians and Paralympians and I accidentally forgot and was on holiday so I was gutted.
“So to have him today to give me my OBE was really special because the last time I saw him he was still Prince Charles.
Cox said they talked about cycling and what speeds she can reach, telling Charles she has “only crashed once and it was probably my fault”.
On her upcoming sporting goals, she added: “So we’re two years away from the next Paralympics.
“I didn’t quite achieve what I wanted to achieve in Tokyo, so I’m really training hard to be able to dominate in Paris and hopefully retire from athletics at that point, but next year I’ve got two world championships which are two weeks apart so it’s going to be a real challenge.
“I’ve got this idea in my head that I want to do the winter Paralympics in ’26 and try snowboarding, so yeah, that’s my next thing on the agenda.”
Cox added: “I haven’t tried it yet but it’s on my agenda. I saw (British snowboarder) Aimee Fuller the other day – she said she’d give me a lesson in snowboarding.”
