Nella Rose’s family says she will WIN I’m A Celebrity

Nella Rose’s family say they are watching her in the jungle and convinced that her ‘Congolese spirit’ will see her win I’m A Celebrity.

A relative said the 26-year-old YouTube star is from a close-knit family and told of their sadness that she didn’t reach out and ask them for help when her mother died suddenly in her arms – and she was evicted from the family home.

Nella and her brother were given just 30 days to get out of the north London flat they shared with their mother after she passed away. The social media star – who rose to fame making TikTok videos, was only 19 and living in crowded university halls with nowhere else to go.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the relative said: ‘All of Nella’s siblings and other members of her family, wherever they are in the world, are watching her in the jungle – and praying that she wins. We are very proud of her achievements, it’s amazing what she’s done. She is showing the fighting spirit of the Congolese people and we are all with her.

‘There is a lot of love for her as we are a caring Congolese family even though we live in different countries. She also has an aunt, her mother’s sister, who lives in London. And her father came from a very large, well to do family. There are lots of them in the Congo and others spread across Europe. She could have turned to anyone of us for help.’

Nella revealed further family heartache in the jungle when she exploded at Fred Siriex for his seemingly innocent joke that he was ‘old enough to be her father’ – hours after she had opened up to campmates about how her father too had been tragically taken from her.

She was born Nella Rose Hollela in Belgium and has only spoken briefly in the past about the death of her father, Paul Hollela in May 2020 – but never revealed that he died in Belgium in his mid-60s after contracting Covid and had spent three months in a Brussels hospital fighting the virus.

Her mother Eseho Omolongo died of a stroke in August 2016 aged 46 at Northwick Park Hospital, north-west London, surrounded by Nella and her older brother Albert, 28.

Her outburst at Fred Siriex following his comment clearly touched a nerve and underlined the close relationship she enjoyed with her father and pain she still feels following his death, despite his tumultuous personal past.

And her run-in with Nigel Farage, when she told him he was ‘hated’ by many people, leading to viewer opinion being deeply divided over her behaviour was no doubt driven by her father’s journey as an immigrant who arrived on European shores in the mid-1970s.

Mr Hollela left his home in the Wembo-Nyama district of central Congo and settled in Paris, where he met a local woman of Congolese descent.

His first child and Nella’s eldest half-sister Omoyi Ly was born in the city and still lives there and is now in her late 40s.

She still maintains contact with Nella and other members of the family with the half-siblings regularly meeting over the years.

While in Paris, Mr Hollela studied for a PhD in agriculture and was then working as an agricultural engineer. But following the break-up of his relationship with Omoyi’s mother, he moved to Brussels in the mid-1980s.

Once in the Belgium capital, the flamboyant Mr Hollela enjoyed a colourful personal life and was considered something of a playboy character while running a women’s boutique in central Brussels that specialised in selling African clothes.

His business was a hub for the Congolese and African diaspora in Belgium and adjoining countries, with Mr Hollela becoming one of the community’s leading figures.

Soon after arriving, he met another local woman of Congolese descent who was a regular customer at his city centre shop, which was called ‘Kamango Boutique.’ They had a daughter, Caroline Hollela, now aged 38, who still lives in the city and is Nella’s second oldest half-sister.

Over the years she has regularly met Nella and her brother Albert during their visits to Brussels to see their father and for other family events when the five siblings came together for meals or outings.

Caroline works as a Higher Education consultant in Brussels for a government run organisation that focuses on the country’s French speaking communities.

It was around 1993, while running his clothes shop, which became hugely popular with women of Congolese and wider African descent that Mr Hollela met Nella’s mother Eseho.

The two quickly fell in love and then married, giving birth to Albert, their eldest son, in 1995. Two years later, Nella was born but the relationship between her parents soon started falling apart.

A family source told MailOnline: ‘Paul’s personal life was very erratic and problematic and there was always a lot going on. He was always smartly dressed and was a very good-looking man. And because he ran the boutique, he was always very popular with the women, because it was only women that shopped there.

‘I remember visiting him when he was married to Eseho, and he told me that things weren’t good, and they weren’t speaking or living together. I never even saw her, things were that bad. But that was Paul for you. None of his relationships ever worked out.’

The source added: ‘He was a wonderful, charismatic man and that’s why people liked him. And despite what was going on, his children always loved him.’

On his Facebook page, which still exists, Mr Hollela described his relationship status as ‘It’s complicated’ accompanied with a love heart.

But even before the complete collapse of his marriage to Nella’s mother, Mr Hollela then met Cecilia, another woman of Congolese descent living in Brussels.

They went on to have a daughter, Charonne, who is Nella’s youngest half-sibling and believed to be aged around 19.

Following the end of the marriage to Nella’s mother, Eseho packed her bags and decided to leave Brussels, moving to London in 2004, when her daughter was aged seven and Albert nine.

It was around this time that Mr Hollela was forced to close his women’s boutique, which was located on the forecourt of Brussels main railway station, because of rising rents imposed as part of a wider redevelopment plan.

But he continued to stay in the city, living with Cecilia and their daughter, and the couple tied the knot around 2009.

He was regularly visited by all his children right up until his death and despite the fact that they were spread over three countries, family sources indicated that they have always been close and have always been a source of comfort and support to one another.

Dozens of pictures posted by Paul on his Facebook show him, Nella and her other siblings beaming at the camera during happy family get togethers, underlining the deep bond they all shared.

Talking of her difficult past, Nella has spoken movingly about being made homeless following her mother’s loss and revealed that she had to live at her accommodation in Leicester University or ‘sofa surf’ with friends.

She told fans on You Tube: ‘She (my mother) died in my arms. It is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life.

‘But then my brother and I get a letter telling us we had 30 days to move out. So, I’m in my second year of uni, I’m dealing with my mum’s death and now we’re homeless.’

She added: ‘You all thought I was living my best life, but in reality, I was homeless, living out of a suitcase and hopping from bed to bed.’

A family source told MailOnline: ‘Despite all the problems Paul had with all their mothers, this never affected the relationship between the children.’

With Nella routinely hitting the headlines for her clashes with Fred Sirieix and Nigel Farage on I’m a Celebrity, further boosting her profile, members of her family have been closely following the show.

The relative added: ‘We all really love her a lot and despite Paul’s troubled relationships, he never stopped loving her. He and Nella were very close. She’s had a very difficult life and her family life is very complicated, but she’s come through it all.’