Craig Charles couldn't watch I'm A Celebrity after brother's death
Red Dwarf star Craig Charles has admitted he couldn't bear to watch I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! after he was forced to pull out of the show following his brother's shock death in 2014.
Craig Charles couldn't bear to watch I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! after he was forced to pull out of the show following his brother's death.
The Red Dwarf actor, 61, joined the ITV series as a contestant back in 2014 but his stint in the Australian jungle was cut short by tragedy - the loss of his beloved brother Dean, who died suddenly aged 52 prompting the TV star to jet back home to be with his family.
Now Craig has admitted he spent years unable to watch the show because it brought back so many unhappy memories. He told The Sun newspaper: "The death of my brother, and my unexpected departure as a result, did change my life.
"It made me re-evaluate things and made me ask: ‘If that had happened to me, would I be happy with what I had achieved?’ I came up with the answer and it was ‘no’ ...
"I was really enjoying my time in the Australian jungle and it got sadly cut short. I knew I wanted to have some new adventures after that ... Since I left, there have been years of ‘What ifs?’
"At first, I’m A Celebrity felt bittersweet after I’d left, and in the first few years I couldn’t watch the show. It made me sad and it opened a world of loss.Every year it came around, I would feel a sense of loss and a feeling of what might have been – both for my brother and for me.
"He was only 52 and he would have been 63 now, which is no age. But that feeling has decreased over the years, and the last few years I have been able to watch it again without feeling the pain and the grief."
Craig has now returned to the show to appear in the All Stars version which was filmed in South Africa and he admitted the offer came "at the right time".
He added: "When this came round, it was at the right time. I feel strong and confident enough to face it again and have a laugh!"
However, Craig confessed he's less fit than he was the first time around and he still can't stand heights or "creepy crawlies".
