Ant McPartlin has confessed that watching Barry McGuigan discuss the heartbreaking death of his daughter "really got" to him.
The I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! presenter was on the ITV2 spin-off show I'm A Celebrity...Unpacked shortly after some poignant scenes were broadcast on the main programme.
In the second episode of the 2024 series, McGuigan was seen being comforted by fellow campmates as he opened up about his late daughter, who tragically passed away just five weeks following a bowel cancer diagnosis in 2019, the Mirror reports.
Ant, who recently became a father himself, shared with hosts Joel Dommett, Kemi Rodgers and the previous year's King of the Jungle Sam Thompson, that he had watched the touching footage before the 9pm airing.
The new dad revealed: "That really got me. We watched it earlier in the day, before the show, and I was crying.
"I can't imagine losing a child and he didn't want to go there but he couldn't help it. I thought the campmates were really lovely with him."
McGuigan's daughter Danika 'Nika' McGuigan passed away on July 23, 2019, at the age of 33, after her second battle with cancer. The Dublin-based actress, known for her role as Danielle in the BBC Three comedy Can't Cope, Won't Cope, had previously beaten leukaemia following two years of treatment when first diagnosed at age 11.
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McGuigan shared with his jungle campmates: "She had leukaemia, when I was making the movie 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, she was good, she came back."
His fellow campmates, including McFly's Danny Jones and N-Dubz star Tulisa Contostavlos, comforted the emotional former boxer. Tulisa told him: "You're a man going through pain and you're vulnerable about it, that takes strength. There is no rules to grieving... it's a reflection of your love."
"Thank you, you're all so lovely, I really appreciate it," McGuigan responded. The Irish star then went on to share details about his late daughter's second bout with cancer.
"It was hard for weeks in the hospital, just watching, shocking," he said tearfully. McGuigan revealed his daughter had "done all this work to get to where she was" having starred in the film Wildfire which received critical acclaim after its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020.
McGuigan said:"(She) never got to see the opening of it," McGuigan said. He told Loose Woman's Jane Moore that his daughter had "suffered so much pain and said 'mum I can't hold on'" before her death.
He added: "Stage 4 bowel cancer, five weeks, five weeks she died." In a statement released at the time, the family shared their heartbreak: "It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of our beautiful daughter and sister, Danika 'Nika' McGuigan.
"After a brief but brave battle against cancer, Nika passed away peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday July 23, surrounded by her loving family. As a family, we are devastated and ask for complete privacy during this difficult period to allow us to grieve for our Nika."
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