Barry McGuigan had viewers and his fellow campmates in tears on I'm A Celebrity.
The former professional boxer broke down in floods of tears in the latest instalment of the ITV jungle reality show on Monday evening (November 18). Irish lad Barry had been chatting with his I'm A Celebrity co-stars when he started to become emotional as talk turned to family.
Barry began to well up as he spoke about his darling daughter Danika, who tragically passed away in July of 2019. Aged just 33, Danika had been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before she passed, causing immense heartache for Barry and his family.
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Opening up about his tragic loss, Barry set the rest of his campmates off as many ran to him to console him as he sobbed. The candid chat began when he was asked if he went to church on a regular basis.
"I used to go to church a lot but after my daughter - you know, not so much," he explained. Danika was the apple of Barry's eye, but was hit with a crushing blow after being diagnosed with acute lymphoid leukaemia when she was aged just 11.
"She had leukaemia, when I was making the boxing with Daniel Day Lewis," Barry added. "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."
He went on to explain that Danika would undergo two years of chemotherapy to fight the cancer and then was given the all-clear. But as he recalled how proud he was of his daughter, he began to well up as his fellow campmates rushed to comfort him.
Barry eventually was able to gather himself again, and gave his love to his ITV co-stars. "Thank you, you're all so lovely, I really appreciate it," he gushed.
Later on in the show, Barry fought back tears a second time as he detailed Danika's other cancer struggles, revealing that she had been diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer. "Five weeks and she died," he lamented as he tried to keep his composure in a chat with Danny Jones and Jane Moore.
Barry welcomed Danika into the world together with wife Sandra back in 1986. Danika, known professionally as Nika, shot to fame herself as an actress, appearing in box office smashes such as Philomena, alongside Dame Judi Dench.
Speaking candidly about his daughter's passing in 2021, Barry admitted he would "never recover" from his devastating loss. He went on to say that he had not fully processed the tragic loss he faced.
"I lost my daughter two years ago, and it’s been shocking, I’ll never recover from it," he told Belfast Live. "My life will go on, but I’ll never be the same because family means everything to me."
I'm A Celebrity airs every day at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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