In an emotional revelation during his time on I’m A Celebrity, Craig Charles opened up about a terrifying incident where he narrowly avoided death from a heart attack, just like his late brother. The actor and DJ, who returned to the jungle for a second time, spoke candidly about his health struggles, which include taking several medications daily to manage his condition. 
Craig, 48, shared how he had to undergo emergency surgery after suffering a heart attack, similar to the one that claimed his brother Dean’s life years earlier. Craig explained, “I’m on about eight tablets a day. I’ve got four stents in my heart. The arteries from my heart were narrow, and it’s the same thing that killed my brother.”
The heart attack happened when his wife Jackie was away visiting family in Galway. Craig recalled, “I gave her a ring, something like ‘I don’t feel great, my jaws are tingling.’” His wife’s sister-in-law, a nurse, immediately advised him to call for an ambulance, but Craig hesitated. It wasn’t until Jackie returned home the following morning that she called for help. By then, Craig was already experiencing the effects of a heart attack.
“They put a wire in, which is attached to a balloon, and they stick a stent in to widen the artery. I was only getting 35% blood to my heart. After the stent, it went up to 100% – they saved me,” Craig explained.
He also revealed that his brother Dean had suffered a similar heart attack while working as a teacher, but tragically, he didn’t survive.
Craig’s fellow campmate Scarlett Moffat praised him for his courage, acknowledging how difficult it must have been to return to the show after receiving such devastating news. Craig admitted, “The death of my brother, Dean, changed my life the last time I was on I’m A Celebrity.”
He continued, “I was 50 at the time, my brother was 52, I had been in Corrie for ten years, and I came into the jungle, and then Dean passed away. It made me re-evaluate everything. I just thought, ‘if that had happened to me, would I be happy with what I’d achieved?’ The answer was ‘no.’ I was in a rut.”
Craig added that his brother Dean had watched the first episode of I’m A Celeb and said to his wife, “He is going to win that,” just before he passed away.
Now, Craig hopes to make his brother proud by finishing the adventure he was forced to cut short. “It’s nice to put that to bed,” he said, reflecting on the unresolved “What ifs” that haunted him since leaving the jungle prematurely years ago.
