Iain Lee broke down in tears on I’m A Celebrity on Saturday night after pulling out of a nail-biting underwater Bushtucker trial.
The panicked comedian, 44, was given bursts of oxygen by a medic after struggling to breathe inside a tunnel in a tank of water, which he branded ‘f**king horrible’.
Iain couldn’t hold back the sobs as he broke the tough news to the rest of the camp – but Rebekah Vardy and Amir Khan seemed unimpressed by the show of emotion and later called crying a ‘weakness’.
Gutted: Iain Lee broke down in tears on I’m A Celebrity on Saturday night after pulling out of a nail-biting underwater Bushtucker trial
Oh dear: Rebekah Vardy and Amir Khan seemed unimpressed by the show of emotion and later called crying a ‘weakness’
Iain’s ordeal began when he joined Ant and Dec at the Trials area for the Temple Of Gloom challenge.
Dec started to explain the Trial to Iain as they all looked at the large swimming pool in front of them.
‘Below this water is the Temple of Gloom which is made up of a series of tunnels and chambers. Some of them have air pockets and some are flooded so you’ll have to hold your breath,’ he said.
Ant continued: ‘You’ll start the Trial with your head in an air pocket, then when you hear the klaxon you have 11 minutes to swim through the various chambers collecting 11 stars, every star you collect is a meal for camp.’
Nightmare: Iain’s ordeal began when he joined Ant and Dec at the Trials area for the Temple Of Gloom challenge
Claustrophobic: He started the trial in an air pocket in the pool and was asked to swim through the various chambers collecting 11 stars in 11 minutes – but pulled out because he struggled to breathe
Awful: The panicked comedian, 44, was given bursts of oxygen by a medic after struggling to breathe inside a tunnel in a tank of water, which he branded ‘f**king horrible’
Iain lowered himself into a large tank filled with water. At the bottom of the tank were a series of large Perspex boxes which were all joined together. On top of the boxes were air pockets. And inside them were water based critters.
Iain dived down to the large Perspex box and sat in the first chamber which had an air pocket for his head. He took deep breaths and tried to get through to the next chamber to start retrieving stars.
Unable to make it, he returned to the air pocket. ‘I can’t do it’ he said. Hosts Ant and Dec told him that they would restart the clock as he composed himself and caught his breath.
They gently cajoled him into having another try but after several attempts, Iain reluctantly said that he couldn’t complete the Trial and said the immortal words, ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ and the Trial was over.
Overwhelmed: Iain couldn’t hold back the sobs as he broke the tough news to the rest of the camp
He clambered out of the tank. ‘How did I do?’ he joked as he climbed up the ladder.
Medic Bob entered as a precaution. ‘I don’t need that’ said Iain. ‘Just for me’ insisted Bob as he gave him a couple of blasts of oxygen.
Ant said: ‘If you can’t do it and you’re struggling for breath, there’s no point.’
‘They’re not designed to be easy so with your frame and size, that was particularly tough,’ Ant continued.
Iain said ‘I’m not a strong swimmer. That should have been ok. That box was tiny. I couldn’t catch my breath. I just started panicking and erm yeah, I ballsed up. Sorry guys. Sorry kids. My kids would have loved that. You boys would have done that easy.’
‘No not at all. You didn’t let anyone down. You gave it your best shot’ reassured Dec.
‘It was literally the best I could do,’ Iain said, looking gutted.
Ant added: ‘When you’re down somewhere and you’re struggling with breath, you know, the one thing that is vital to survive, I get it. We understand.’
‘Bless him. I feel sorry for the man,’ said Ant sympathetically.
Reflecting afterwards on the ordeal, he admitted: ‘I feel gutted. It was really traumatic. I’m not a very strong swimmer. The camp are going to be you know, they’ll be gutted. It was on my head. Terrible terrible. Literally the best I could do was that.’
He walked into camp looking crestfallen. ‘I couldn’t do it’ he said. ‘I couldn’t do it. It was f**king horrible.’
He welled up as he explained. Amir said ‘Don’t worry about it mate’ and Dennis said ‘You ok?’ Dennis and Amir hugged him. ‘You didn’t let us down. We’re one team,’ he said.
Iain continued to explain the Trial. Amir comforted him. ‘Don’t be upset. Listen. Don’t be upset. We are the team. We’re going to come back stronger from this guys. Don’t be upset. Go and have a shower, go and relax and we’ll have a proper chat later.’
Rebekah later said: ‘Iain came back from the Trial and basically as like a broken man and that was just the most horrific thing to have seen.’
‘It’s really horrible. I hate seeing people upset as it is. It just brings back the reality of how desperate people are to do well for the team bit you know we’re not going to win them all. I think we all need to accept that. We all have accepted that.’
During a searingly honest chat with Shappi, Iain admitted that while people may perceive him as ‘arrogant’, he was in fact ‘chronically shy’.
‘I’m really not confident in groups of people, and I can’t do small talk, and that can often be perceived as arrogance or rudeness, and it’s not at all. It’s anxiety and it’s chronic shyness,’ he said.
‘I am lanky and clumsy and awful. I am just lashing out and making things awful. It’s not what I thought it was going to be and I’m not enjoying it,’ he added.
Iain then came out of 10 Downing Creek to find all the campmates were gone except Rebekah. ‘Where’s everyone gone?’ he asked.
‘Some are doing a work out, some are swimming, are you o.k? asked Rebekah ‘Yeah’ replied Iain.
Becky said ‘Hey look, these Trials are f***** hard’, ‘It was so horrendous’ said Iain.
Talking in the Bush Telegraph, Rebekha said: ‘I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like and there’s nothing worse than that sheer panic of going underwater and feeling you can’t breathe.’
‘The panic was just rising and I was thinking to myself this is fine, it’s nothing, but I just couldn’t control the panic’ said Iain.
‘Don’t worry about it, it’s done now,’ Rebekah said. ‘I don’t think people realise how hard it is in here, it’s really tough. It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do or done.’
Later in camp, the celebrities were all talking about Iain. Amir said he didn’t like to see men cry.
‘Me neither but I think it’s important to be able to express your feelings’ said Toff.
Becky asked Amir when he last cried and he said as a teenager. ‘I hate crying, I feel like it shows weakness,’ Rebekah cried.
‘That’s why I don’t do it as well, show weakness and people walk all over you’ said Amir.
Jamie added: ‘I think as men, we don’t cry.’
Toff agreed and said men also don’t say anything when they should, ‘Yes, and that’s the problem’ said Jamie.
‘Yes, because the stereotypical man doesn’t cry and that’s wrong, that shouldn’t be the case’ said Toff.
Talking in the Bush Telegraph, Jamie said: ‘It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength sharing your emotions and there is nothing wrong with that, real men cry.’