Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins Loses First Contestant '2 Hours In'

"He just thought, ‘F*** this. I don’t need to do this’."
Open Image Modal
The cast of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins 2024
Pete Dadds/Channel 4

It apparently only took a matter of hours for one of this year’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins participants to decide the show wasn’t for them.

The latest series of the grueling Channel 4 reality show begins airing next week, with contestant Shazia Mirza revealing that John Barrowman made a very quick u-turn once the show got up and running.

After the group “all failed” the first challenge of the series, the comic explained to Metro: “We got back to camp and they made us go head first into an ice pack with our clothes on.

“John Barrowman just thought, ‘Fuck this. I don’t need to do this’. And he handed his arm band in after that.”

Open Image Modal
John Barrowman pictured in 2019
via Associated Press

Similarly, Rachel Johnson (sister of the former prime minister) corroborated the story, telling MailOnline: “John left like two hours in. He did the first day, and then he voluntarily withdrew in camp. When we were doing the tour of the accommodation.”

Last year, John hit out at “unsubstantiated information” that was circulating about his Celebrity SAS exit, urging his followers to “watch the show and see the truth”.

When the cast was announced earlier this month, John wrote on X: “Tune in to see what really happened!”

“It’s impossible to prepare yourself mentally, physically, emotionally for this. It’s more than you could ever prepare for,” he added.

The Sun has also reported that Louie Spence made a swift exit early on into the filming process, while Pete Wicks is also on the line-up after being forced to quit the show early back in 2022 when he injured himself during filming.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins returns on Sunday 22 September on Channel 4.