Pete Wicks talks Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins departure

In last night’s second episode of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, Pete Wicks was forced to withdraw from the show.

Pete had to pull out of the Selection Course following an injury, after jumping from a helicopter with his partner in the task, Ashley Cain, who he needs to work together with to get to shore.  During the task, Pete finds himself knocked unconscious, before recovering and swimming back to shore.

The task is part of a series of brutal exercises, designed to push the recruits to face and overcome their deepest trust issues. Trust in your teammates is vital in the Special Forces, where hesitation costs lives.

Pete Wicks has talked about his injury and has revealed his thoughts on having to withdraw from the course:

“I had no worries about that challenge, which is the weirdest thing. My strongest thing is probably swimming. I think I was one of the strongest swimmers there and that was a challenge that I thought was well suited to me. And even beforehand, I remember Billy talking to me. I was paired with Ashley, who wasn’t the strongest swimmer, so he said, “Look after Ashley,” and so I just had that in my head, I needed to look after Ashley. So I didn’t really have any worries about that challenge. I genuinely thought this would be the challenge for me to show what I f*cking got. And I got it wrong, I got it very wrong. I think my leg got a little bit caught in the bag and I went straight down onto the bag, knocked myself out and broke my ribs.”

“I was unconscious in the water so I don’t really remember much, just the rescue swimmers coming to get me and they flicked me over and then said, “we need to get you in the boat.” I didn’t want to get in the boat because if you start something, you have to finish it, so then I remember trying to swim back.  The last thing I remember was trying to make sure Ash was all right. We got to shore and then I realised, “f*ck I’ve actually hurt myself here.”

“I felt dazed and confused. I was struggling to move my upper body.  Basically, I think where I’d hit the bag, and I think just the impact of being unconscious and everything else, I was very confused. I didn’t really know exactly what was going on and even moving my arms was quite painful, just because the pressure that was on my ribs and everything, so it just wasn’t nice. It was just a strange, strange experience.”

Recruits are tested to their physical and psychological limits by the DS, an elite team of ex-special forces operators from the UK and USA, in a condensed version of special forces selection and there is no cushy treatment for the celebs as they leave their glamorous lives for one of the harshest training environments on the planet.

In the opening episode last week, viewers had already seen reality TV star Pete Wicks’ usual lifestyle of partying and cigarettes sees him struggle, while 61-year-old Olympian Fatima Whitbread, the oldest recruit in the show’s history, impressed the DS.

Ashley Cain and Pete Wicks, Celebrity SAS.

Pete on his disappointment at having to withdraw:

“I was gutted actually. This is a bit of a thing for me, it’s like I’ve always wanted to do this show and the worst thing for me was to be taken out because that’s something that I can’t control. But being completely honest, they’re a hundred percent right because I wouldn’t have been able to carry on with my broken ribs. To have been out so early, I was absolutely gutted because it’s a fail. And unfortunately now for me, I feel like I failed.  It’s something that will f*cking haunt me because I just don’t fail things. I don’t say I’m going to do something and don’t do it, so I was genuinely so hurt, gutted, disappointed, f*cked off and angry at myself. And I still am, to be honest, even a year later. That was tough for me. I felt like I’d let a lot of people down, I felt like I’d let myself down.”

“Regardless, my fitness was nowhere near a lot of the other people, but it wasn’t about that. The whole show is more mental than it is anything else and I wanted to get interrogated and I was just gutted not to even get that far. There was no way I was ever going to hand my armband in.  I knew I never would, so to go out the way I did really hurt. To be withdrawn because you’re physically unable to carry on for something that was an unfortunate accident, I just found really, really tough.”

“My ribs were really bruised and it’s taken time to heal. But the team on the show were great. I completely get why they took me out. At the time I felt like I wanted to try and carry on and I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to – they know better than I do. And obviously me being unconscious is a big thing, they can’t take any risks and I totally get that. But it doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely gutted.”

Others taking part this year include former EastEnders’ regular Maisie Smith (21) and ex-Brookside performer Jennifer Ellison (39), TV personality and entrepreneur Calum Best (41), Ferne McCann (32), ex-footballer and philanthropist Ashley Cain (31), influencer Amber Gill (25), professional dancer AJ Pritchard (27), professional dancer and TV personality Curtis Pritchard (26), Olympic sprinter Dwain Chambers (44), taekwondo Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones (29), professional boxer Shannon Courtenay (29), and Paralympic high jumper Jonathan Broom-Edwards MBE (34).

On whether he would want to return to take part in the series again in the future, Pete said:

“One hundred percent, without a shadow of a doubt I’d do it tomorrow if they gave me another chance at the course. I feel like I’ve got unfinished business and I failed as far as I’m concerned. I want to put that right. It was something that is genuinely going to haunt me. I think there are so many things that happen on that show that would have benefitted me as a person. Everyone who’s been on it said they came out a changed person. I think that’s the thing that I’m most sad about – that I didn’t get an opportunity for that too – I really felt like I was beginning, after just a few days, to understand a little bit more about myself and why I am the way I am. I think that’s what I missed out on.  I really think the course would have changed my life. So to leave the way I did just left me quite angry. It’s left more than just a bitter taste in my mouth, I’m truly gutted.”