WHEN 80s pop singer Sinitta signed up to star in I’m a Celebrity her closest pals were horrified.

The eccentric star with a terror of creepy crawlies is well known for opening her heart about her private life.

And they feared it would only be a matter of time before she was revealing secrets about her unusual relationship with X Factor mogul Simon Cowell, her dates with a young Brad Pitt, her efforts to have kids... and the pain of learning she had a twin sister.

Sinitta, whose hits included Toy Boy and So Macho, has already kept campmates amused by comparing the sexual prowess of the two superstar lovers.

Producers of the ITV1 show spared Cowell’s blushes and cut out the juicier details. But it seems only a matter of time before she returns to the subject of the “horny, salty dog” and “serial love cheat” she dated on and off for 20 years.

Bachelor Simon has always been a pillar of support for Sinitta, taking her on holiday with his girlfriends and recruiting her as his assistant mentor on X Factor.

But many in the showbiz world have questioned why their friendship seems to dominate her life... and why she feels the need to talk about him constantly.

The answer may lie in the family secret that rocked Sinitta’s life just as her career was taking off.

Sinitta Renet Malone was born in Seattle in 1963 although she insists it was actually 1968.

Sinitta and mum

Her mum, Canadian actress and singer Miquel Brown, was just 14 when she gave birth. Sinitta spent her first six years in foster care and then with relatives until her mother was able to care for her. As Miquel travelled around the world working, Sinitta was often parted from her again.

But in the early 80s, when Sinitta was in West End show Mutiny with pop star David Essex, her twin arrived in London.

“I wasn’t aware I had a twin sister,” said Sinitta in an interview. “I thought she was just my aunt’s little girl and that we dressed alike. I didn’t really get it.

“She came to England looking for her real family because her foster mother had died. She’d grown up always aware of me. It was really mad to take in. I didn’t like it because I had this really sort of romantic attachment to my mother, you know, us two against the world.

“Suddenly there was somebody else who looked just like me and more like my mother than I do.

“I just had a bit of a fit at mum. I was like the cheated woman, it was like she’d been having an affair. I didn’t actually speak to her for two years.

“It was quite a difficult time and I was at a difficult age. My career was taking off so I had lots of other pressure. So I kind of just checked out for a couple of years.

“Mum didn’t feel she’d kept it a secret because she assumed I remembered Greta.

“I vaguely remembered playing with a little girl but I just didn’t realise who she was to me.

“We don’t really have a relationship. She’s been over a few times. We had our 21st birthdays together. When she had her little boy she brought him over to meet us. But we’re not really close, we’re not emailing or texting or in touch regularly.”

Sinitta with Simon Cowell and Brad Pitt

At the time, Sinitta had recently started dating Cowell, and he was there for her like he always has been. Sinitta met the record company talent spotter in 1983 when she was almost 20 and he was 25. But when she “lost” five years off her age in interviews it meant they got together when she was 14 and sparked awkward questions.

Sinitta claimed in 2006 that their relationship had never been consummated. But when Cowell’s sexuality was questioned she simply changed her tune, saying: “We did have a proper physical relationship. I don’t know how this idea we didn’t has come about. We didn’t at first because I was underage, but later on, yes, absolutely.”

Sinitta claimed Cowell was a serial love cheat and they would split up, have other relationships and then get back together.

Sinitta in the I'm A Celebrity jungle

She said: “I’d go off and find somebody else. Then he’d see me and not like that.

“He’d do weird things to p*** my boyfriend off and then, of course, I’d go back to him. I dated David Essex for a bit and he’d be just winding him up. He’d be like ‘look how old he is... he could be your grandad... look at his hair’. He’d just pick holes so I’d go off them and go running back to him.

“We’re super close now. I would say that we’re like siblings who look after each other. But we also kind of beat each other up a little as well. He’s still the worst, but he’s also the best.”

It was during one of the pair’s splits in 1988 that Sinitta dated an up-and-coming actor called Brad Pitt. “He was in Dallas, but I was a Dynasty fan,” she said. “He played Priscilla Presley’s daughter’s boyfriend. I didn’t know who he was at all.

“He came to the UK and asked to meet me. I was quite prominent then. When I saw a picture, I was like [gasps] ‘OK, I’ll go. Who is he? Get him, get him!’ I went on this date with him and we just clicked.

“I had no decorum, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got a new house, do you want to live with me?’

“I didn’t have any furniture, I didn’t have any food in the fridge, but I had him and I was happy. He was just really fun. Everybody was after him and I was quite jealous.

“It was girls AND boys. I can remember George Michael thinking he was quite sweet. And he was prettier than me which was hard as well.

“I was a bit crazy. I probably wasn’t super romantic. I just wanted to be with my friends. I was a clubby, party girl, and I wanted my cute boys to come with me. We’re not in touch. Once he got married to Jennifer Aniston, it kind of died off.”

Sinitta got married to financier Andy Willner in 2002 but despite IVF treatment they couldn’t conceive. They adopted two children, Zac and Magdalena, now four and five. But their marriage broke down and they divorced in 2010.

In November 2009, Sinitta began dating millionaire businessman Stefano Zagni, 42. Three months later she announced to the world she was expecting their child... but she has never explained the reason she never had the baby.

Perhaps that’s the next revelation in store for her I’m a Celebrity campmates.