I’m A Celebrity star Barry McGuigan sobbed with his campmates as he recounted the tragic loss of his daughter to cancer.
The latest series of the ITV reality show started on November 17, welcoming McFly’s Danny Jones, radio host Dean McCullough and WAG Coleen Rooney into the wilderness.
In tonight’s episode, the ex-boxing champ shared the sad story of his daughter Danika’s battle with cancer and her death.
As the celebrities gathered around the fire, Dean asked whether Barry frequented church. Barry poignantly replied: “I used to go to church a lot but after my daughter… you know, not so much.”
McGuigan faced the heartbreaking loss of his daughter in 2019, just five weeks after she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer.
He recalled: “She had leukaemia, when I was making [The Boxer] with Daniel Day Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she’d been diagnosed with leukaemia, they thought she wasn’t going to get better but she fought back and she won it. She had two years of chemo.”
Nika overcame the disease during her childhood and pursued an acting career, featuring in the 2016 Irish film Mammal, alongside Barry Keoghan.
Sadly, the actress was diagnosed with the illness again in her early thirties.
As Barry remembered his daughter, he was overcome with emotion and broke down in tears. His fellow campmates were quick to offer their support, with Danny and N-Dubz star Tulisa wrapping him in a comforting hug.
Barry opened up about the second cancer diagnosis to journalist Jane Moore, revealing that Nika had been experiencing “pains in her tummy but she was making the movie, she put it off and went to the doctor, called us all in. Stage 4 bowel cancer, 5 weeks, 5 weeks she died.”
In the past, Barry has spoken candidly about his grief, admitting that he will never fully recover from the loss of his daughter.
In a 2021 interview with Belfast Live, he shared: “I lost my daughter two years ago and it’s been shocking. I’ll never recover from it. My life will go on but I’ll never be the same because family means everything to me.”
While Nika was Barry’s only daughter, he also has three sons; Shane, Jake, and Blane with his wife Sandra, whom he’s been married to for over four decades.
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! continues tomorrow night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.