Celebrity SAS star feared he’d killed Strictly contestant when he collapsed on mountain

Billy Billingham has admitted he was worried he might have killed Strictly Come Dancing’s Pete Wicks on a mountain in New Zealand.

Pete might currently be nervous about his fate on the Strictly ballroom floor, but it was up a mountain in the scenic Oceanic country that things really took a turn for the worse.

The Towie star, 36, features alongside ex-SAS leader Billy in Sunday night’s dramatic third episode of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins season six.

In the frightening scene, Pete collapses to the floor during a tough physical task and is shown struggling to breathe before the medics are called in.

Serious fear then starts to set in for Billy, 59, who worries that Pete ‘isn’t going to make it’ and then predicts the worst outcome of all: ‘He’s going to die.’

At the beginning of the episode, the group of celebrities – which includes the likes of Anthony Ogogo and Georgia Harrison – are told they’re going to be making their way up a snow-capped mountain.

With the group told to pair off, Pete – appearing on Celebrity SAS for the second time – ends up going it alone before getting into serious trouble resulting in a snowmobile arriving to rescue him after he collapses to the ground.

Fellow recruit and Geordie Shore star Marnie Simpson, 32, told previously: ‘I felt bad for Pete because coming back the second time, there was so much pressure on him to do even better than the first time so he pushed himself way too far.’

Pete spoke to The Sun about the horrendous ordeal: ‘Look, that was a tough challenge. I collapsed. I just pushed myself to a limit and I was very dehydrated.’

He continued: ‘Weirdly enough, I think I’m the only person that gets heat exhaustion in the f*****g snow. I hadn’t looked after myself and it’s a fine line between getting stuff right and wrong.’

The Strictly star, who scored 39 points across his first two dances of the brand-new season, first appeared on Celebrity SAS back in 2022 but had to withdraw.

He exited the series after breaking his ribs in the early weeks, being officially medically withdrawn almost straight away – the eventual winner in 2022 was, ironically, Strictly’s AJ Pritchard.

When he collapsed on the mountain, he admitted that thoughts of his early exit two years ago immediately came to his mind.

‘At least I pushed myself. I didn’t feel like I’d reached my limit yet. But of course it was a fear of being pulled out again, you know, striking out twice.’

Billy, who came to Pete’s aid, joined the SAS in 1991 and later became a bodyguard to the stars, including clients such as Tom Cruise, Hulk Hogan, and Kate Moss.

He joined the series during its second season back in 2016, being added to the team that – at the time – included Jason Fox and Ant Middleton.

Earlier in the 2024 edition of the show, John Barrow quit very early on following an excruciating ice bath challenge that eventually lasted more than two hours.

Competitor Shazia Mirza said: ‘We all failed the task. Then we got back to camp and they made us go head first into an ice pack with our clothes on. John just thought, “F*** this. I don’t need to do this.”‘