John Barrowman’s accent left ITV viewers bemused on Monday as he joined Lorraine via video link.
The television personality chatted with Lorraine Kelly about his decision to leave Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins after just 32 minutes. Starting the interview, Lorraine queried John: “Why did you sign up? What was the idea behind it?”
“The idea behind it was that I thought it would give you the chance to tell the story and also, the show itself helps people come to terms with things that they’re struggling with or have gone through, and that is why I did it,” John responded openly.
“I thought I’d give it a whirl and see what happens. I do like a challenge so I went and started on that full day, we started early in the morning and I got to the point of seeing now the crossing of the bridge… those kinds of things don’t really bother me but having watched the show, Lorraine and seen it, I looked at myself even when doing the interview bits and saw that angry person and the person who was still upset and the person who was still in a bad place.
“But as I kept going through this first day and they were saying things like, ‘You don’t know who you are, you have got to discover who you are, you have got to find out who the real person is’ and all the stuff they say to kind of build you back up,” reports the Mirror.
He continued: “And I kept saying to myself, ‘I know who I am, I know who John Barrowman is, I have made a mistake here’ and that was the bit when we were doing the walk-through.
“And then that light bulb went off and I started getting sick, so I thought, ‘wait a minute, I am in a situation here, I know who John Barrowman is, I am starting to get sick, I need to make a decision about whether to continue here’.”
“And that was it, I said, ‘I am out’ and I couldn’t do it if I was sick,” he continued, expressing his clear conscience on leaving and appreciating his experience.
“The show did what it meant to do in showing me who I was,” John detailed, before informing Lorraine: “It was the best decision I ever made, and the best decision to do the show.”
During the interview, John’s real voice sparked reactions on social media. One viewer wrote on X: “BREAKING: John Barrowman finally comes out as Scottish.”
Another penned: “John Barrowman speaking in a Scottish accent today lol justifying leaving #celebritySAS 30 mins in.”
A third added: “John Barrowman talking about himself in the third person in a Scottish accent wasn’t on my Monday bingo card.”
“So John Barrowman is Scottish today ok,” another commented while someone else agreed: “John Barrowman is Scottish today. #lorraine”
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV.