Celebrity SAS changed me forever and uncovered old scars, says Gareth Gates
Gareth Gates won Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins 2023 after reaching the final with politician Matt Hancock and model Danielle Lloyd.
Now a changed man after the experience, he's returned to the stage touring the show he produced Gareth Gates Sings... Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons across the UK.
As the 2024 Celebrity SAS line-up is revealed, the Pop Idol star has laid bare his gruelling experience of the Channel 4 show and how it changed him forever in his own words...
You asked if Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins changed my life. Absolutely it did.
I found an inner strength there that I've never found before and yes, I had to dig deep and revisit scars that I buried and never wanted to revisit. But it was part of a process and it really put things into perspective. I'm a much stronger and a better person as a result of doing the whole process.
You expect for a TV show to say and ‘cut’ and have a Mars bar or something - but it doesn't happen. It is fully immersive. It was helpful to know there was an end though.
SAS was definitely the best and worst experience of my life. I found so much out about myself throughout the whole journey and I was asked to do it, actually, the year before I did it but I got COVID two days before I was meant to fly out. In some ways I'm pleased. I was really glad to do it out in Vietnam and in the middle of the jungle and it was the most incredible experience.
I'm a very driven and competitive person. My aim was always to last to the end and in my mind I knew the only way I'd be leaving was if I accidentally injure myself. I've obviously had struggles in the past with my speech impediment, my stammer and being badly bullied at school. Although they push you mentally, I had to tap into that kind of mental strength that I built up since I was a kid.
The DS team are the toughest men I've ever met. They were pussycats in comparison to those bullies I experienced at school. I've never told anybody some of the things I disclosed in that interview. It was hard to go back to that time and to relive some of those moments. They have a really good way of breaking you down to build you back up again. That's exactly what happened.
The physical side of things I was OK with as I trained hard most days in the gym and I prepared as best as I could. Don't get me wrong, it was tough at times but I was able to manage it. The DS really does know how to get into your head though. The interrogation at the end was very tough. Some of those stress positions you have to hold and the horrendous noises that they put in your ears – and it's spine-chilling!
It was the therapy and the therapist that I saw was part of the whole journey on SAS. You have a chat with them before you go in, they need to know that you're mentally stable. Then afterwards, the show and Channel 4, the great duty of care, they really make sure everybody who goes in and comes out is really looked after. They offered therapy afterwards and I took it. It was really great.
You do find yourself on SAS, questioning things and just having that time on your own without a phone. When you laid in your bunk, for instance, that was one of the things that really you've been alone with your thoughts. It's rare that we're in that situation these days because our default is to go on to our phone and start scrolling and looking at other people's lives. It was a real eye opener and the therapy afterwards really helped with all that.
Certainly those last interrogation stages, they really leave you in a weird place because it's the end of the whole process. You've had 10 days of really stretching you in every possible way. It was great to debrief, if anything else.
This show is a real leveller. It makes no difference whether you're a pop star, a politician, a sports person, or a reality star. That only matters for probably five minutes when you're in there when you see who else is there and you're like, "Oh, that's so and so" and that's somebody else.
But then, they throw you straight in the deep end and it really doesn't matter who you are, what you've done. What's been in the press about you. You're there as a team and it's all about survival, you all help each other through those hard times and you get to see the real people.
Often in this industry, people have a mask or a persona and for some people it lasts a few days, even in there. Eventually, the real side of people emerges and it’s interesting to see. We just were all there for each other. There were some great people on my series and I got to know some really great people.
Danielle Lloyd and Matt Hancock and myself lasted until the end. The people that made it to the end are people who have had a struggle and hurdles to get over. That's really telling of what the show does to you and our characters, we've all had things in our lives that we've had to push past. It's made us stronger people.
I've never experienced anything like SAS. I wouldn't want to experience anything like it again but I had a thought the other day. What if they do an All Stars version? They have to pay me a lot of money to do that! It'd have to be the right amount of money for sure. But I look back over all the people who passed and all the winners and I think I'd give them all a good run for the money.
My life now, touring and back on stage, is a lot easier than SAS and a lot more enjoyable. Gareth Gates Sings... Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is my first ever experience of producing a show as well as starring in it.
If I can get through SAS, I can get through producing a show. I've built the show from the ground, booking venues, casting it. I've cast some amazing West End singers for the show and found the band and put the whole songs together. We’re doing 17 dates this coming autumn.
Singing in the past has been my form of release. As a child, I started to stammer at the first being able to speak at the age of four. Then, at the age of eight, I learned I could sing. For the first time, I could get words out of my mouth using my lips and my tongue where all those blocks occur when you have a stammer. It really became my freedom, my only form of release, my only form of expression.
So singing for me is just a wonderful feeling. It's more than just entertaining crowds: it is what saved me. So I love performing and being out on the road again. Touring is a great feeling.
Watch the Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins trailer
There's a couple of guys I've cast that aren't as experienced as others. It's great to help them along and nurture them and give them advice, as well as give them the platform to perform but equally they keep me on my toes too. It's great to see the new generation come in, be as hungry as I was when I first started and that really keeps us older ones on the show on our toes.
I’ve always been hard-working but my level of work ethic has been really, really pushed up since SAS because nothing compared to that workload that they put us under. It certainly inspired me to do more and more, I just keep on pushing forward. Then in a few years, I can retire. I don’t think I’ll ever stop completely, it just means I will spend more time with my daughter, my family and my partner. It is hard when you are constantly away on tour and away from my loved ones.
It's all part of the big plan to give my daughter a life that I want to give her.
She's been with me most of my career and she's seen daddy on stage and she absolutely loves it. She's got a great voice and she's a great dancer too. Now she's 15, it won't be long before she has to decide what she wants to do and I don't think there's any doubt in her mind she's definitely going to be in the industry in some way. It's good to bring her to shows so she can gather experience.
In a few years, and the way that I’m investing, I won’t have to be away from my family as much.
Gareth Gates told his story to Lily Waddell.
Gareth Gates Sings... Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons tours from the 29th September for a three week run. He fronts an all star cast of West End performers as they pay tribute to The Jersey Boys.
