Barry McGuigan’s son has thanked the other I’m A Celebrity campmates for supporting his dad after he broke down in tears while discussing the tragic death of his daughter, Danika.
Taking to Instagram after the emotional scenes. Shane McGuigan wrote: “Thank you to all the other campmates supporting dad. We appreciate it immensely.”
Actress Danika McGuigan died five weeks after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019, aged 33.
She had played Danielle in BBC Three comedy Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope and appeared in several films.
A tearful McGuigan told his jungle campmates on the ITV reality show about how she originally recovered from leukaemia as a child after two years of treatment.
Barry and his wife Sandra, who he married in 1981, welcomed four children together with sons Shane, Jake, Blain, and daughter Danika – who was affectionately called Nika.
Barry left his fellow celebrities and viewers at home in tears, as he recalled Danika’s final words before she died when she said: “Mum, I can’t hold on”.
“She had leukaemia, when I was making The Boxer with Daniel Day Lewis,” Barry recounted. “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.”
Speaking about Danika’s second bout of cancer 20 years after she beat leukaemia, he told journalist and Loose Women star Jane Moore she had “pains in her tummy but she was making a movie, she put it off and went to the doctor, called us all in. Stage 4 bowel cancer, five weeks, five weeks she died.”
Danika McGuigan
Social media was lit up by those who admitted they had been moved to tears with one viewer writing: “Barry man.. don’t do this to me. That’s actually heart breaking. No parent should ever lose their child.”
Another added: “Oh my God my heart is breaking for Barry McGuigan.”
The topic arose after the contestants were eating rice and beans around the campfire and Radio 1 DJ Dean McCullough asked Barry if he goes to church.
The boxer who represented Northern Ireland in the 1978 Commonwealth Games replied: “I used to go to church a lot but after my daughter… you know, not so much. I used to go incessantly but when you lose a child it’s different.”
He then thanked his fellow campmates after telling them about Nika, adding: “Thank you, you’re all so lovely, I really appreciate it”.
He added: “I try to talk about it but no matter what I do it just comes back. It was hard just watching. It was shocking.”
Over the years Barry has talked about the pain of Danika’s first diagnosis and his admiration for her bravery in battling the disease.
Danika, too, had spoken about her father and how much of her strength came from him as she came through gruelling treatment as a child.
She had said what she admired most about her dad was his determination, and when she got the all-clear from her childhood cancer she said: “I know how lucky I am and I know there’s been one figure that, throughout, has been a huge inspiration to me. That’s my dad.”
It appeared that Barry opening up during last night’s show got Coleen Rooney emotional too, as she confided in Dean and Oti about the loss of her sister.
“Even when Rosie died, I kept it together for me mum and dad,” the WAG said.
Revealing her anniversary is coming up in January, she added: “She was 14 when she died, she’d be 26 now. It’s hard to lose a child, I’ve always said that… so we’re lucky to have what we’ve got.”
The wife of former England captain Wayne Rooney also opened up about the infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ ordeal for the first time in the jungle in the episode.
During a conversation with Jane Moore about her coverage of King Charles and then-wife Princess Diana, Dean turned to Coleen to comment: “Can you imagine if Princess Diana would have done a Wagatha Christie?”
The journalist replied telling Coleen it was “epic what she did”.
In 2019, Coleen was in the public spotlight after she accused her fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories about her to the tabloids.
When asked by GK if she had been scared about outing Vardy, Coleen said: “No because I just didn’t think it would have the impact it did, because I was just that sick and tired of it, it was draining.”
“That was my worst nightmare to go to court,” she added, referencing the pair’s legal battle last year which was won by Coleen.
“I felt like it was like putting on a show for the whole world. What got me, over the whole thing, was it became a bit of a joke and that’s really disappointing, it wasn’t a joke for me.”