The Spill: Saturday's best entertainment and gossip news.

1. Before I’m a Celeb and Love Island, Erin Barnett starred in another reality TV show.

It turns out reality star Erin Barnett, who was the runner up on 2018’s season of Love Island and is currently a contestant on I’m a Celebrity, has also been on another reality TV show, many moons ago.

In 2013, at 18-years-old, Barnett was on Channel Seven’s Beauty and the Geek Australia. And just like on the first season of Love Island, Barnett placed second overall.

The show saw a number of beautiful women coupled up with men who were 'nerds' as they were tasked with learning from each other. The winner would receive $100,000.

Erin's job at the time was a babysitter, and she was partnered with 'geek' Nathan, an IT guru, who she evidently didn't find love with.

The now 24-year-old is onto her third reality series, Channel 10's I'm a Celebrity. Here's hoping history doesn't repeat itself once more, and she can go further than runner-up.

2. Justin Chambers aka Dr Alex Karev is leaving Grey’s Anatomy and WE ARE NOT COPING.

For 15 years, Justin Chambers got up every day and took himself off to the same job. The fact that that job was a starring role on Grey's Anatomy, one of the most successful (and lucrative) television dramas in recent memory... well, that probably helps.

Now, after 350 episodes as Dr Alex Karev, the talented bad-boy surgeon (who's actually just a bit tortured from his crappy upbringing and really kind of nice when you get to know him), the 49-year-old is calling it quits.

“There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” he said in a statement to Deadline. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”

Unbeknownst to fans, his final episode screened in the US in November. And it remains to be seen how the show's writers will explain his departure when the series returns.

3.“Welcome to the clan!” Gogglebox’s Lee and Keith welcome their first grandchild.

Crack open a tinnie, because there's a little more Lee and Keith in the world.

The Gogglebox stars welcomed their first grandchild on Friday, a little girl named Riley, and showed her off in a series of gorg social media posts.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Well here she is our first Grandchild Riley Born : 8th January 2020 Weight : 2.7 kilos

A post shared by Lee and Keith (@lee_and_keith) on Jan 9, 2020 at 5:46pm PST

In a video posted to Facebook, the pair shared how excited they were to become "Pa" and "Nan".

"You can tell by our smiles our grandchild has arrived finally," Lee said, adding both mother and baby were doing well.

"She's gorgeous she takes after me, thank god," Kieth joked.

Bald head, tiny singlets... yep, figures.

4. MAFS’ Elizabeth Sobinoff shows off her massive new back tattoo.

Elizabeth Sobinoff, of Married At First Sight fame, has shown off her brand new tattoo on Instagram to her nearly 200,000 followers.

The latest design on her heavily-tattooed lower back shows a stack of books, with a spider crawling over them and a butterfly resting on the top.

"When I was a young girl, I used to love going to the library and flicking though the children's books and seeing the illustrations," the Channel Nine reality star explained to her followers, adding her favourite storybook was Possum Magic by Mem Fox.

Sobinoff went on to say she got her first tattoo, which was an image of a black cat, in 2018 and has been hooked to tattoos ever since. Most of her tattoos are animals, she explained, saying each "has a specific spiritual meaning". Oh, and she wants more too.

The 28-year-old was on the 2019 season of MAFS and will be returning to the brand new season in 2020, with an all new 'husband'.

5. "It's not true the palace were blindsided ": Inside claims Harry and Meghan were 'driven out'.

Early on Thursday morning (Australian time), Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, sensationally announced that they were ditching their cushy jobs as senior Royals and becoming “financially independent”.

It seemed brave. A young, modern couple, unshackling themselves from an institution rooted in often-archaic traditions.

But according to a long-time friend of the Duke, the situation was less a case of the strong-willed youngest running away from home, and more spare-to-the-heir being shoved out the door.

ITV journalist, Tom Bradby, has known the Duke of Sussex for two decades. It was he whom Harry and Meghan chose to open up about their mental health struggles via the much-talked-about 2019 documentary, An African Journey. They are about as close as a journalist and Prince could/should get.

And according to his account of the whole #megxit saga, the couple feared they were being “driven out” of the working Royal Family, fears that were confirmed when they took a six-week Christmas/New Year break in Canada while the others joined the Queen at Sandringham – as is tradition.

“It had been made clear to them in their absence there was going to be a slimmed-down monarchy,” he said on ITV News, “and they weren’t really a part of it.”

A leaner monarchy.

Prince Charles’ plans to streamline the monarchy aren’t new.

Ever since the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 when the extended relos were snubbed from the traditional balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace, it’s been understood that the Prince of Wales intends to trim the fat, for the sake of the public purse and to minimise the risk of scandal surrounding the monarchy. (Case in point: Prince Andrew)

It’s been speculated that, once he takes the throne, he intends to limit working royalty to the line of succession: in other words, himself and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, plus his children and grandchildren.

Although, given the Duchess of Sussex is far from a favourite among key mastheads in the merciless – but hugely influential – British tabloid press (she’s been accused of being everything from ‘narcissistic’ to ‘diva-ish’), perhaps it’s not all that surprising that the Palace would choose to pull focus back to Prince William and co.

Of course, a palace aide has dismissed such claims: “It is strongly disputed that the Sussexes are not at the centre of any future slimmed-down monarchy,” the unnamed source told The Times.

Read our full deep dive on the claims Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were 'driven out' of the Royal Family here.