Matt Hancock says being 'smacked in the face' didn't hurt as much as he expected

20 September 2023 , 16:49

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Matt Hancock says being 'smacked in the face' didn't hurt as much as he expected

Matt Hancock is certainly no stranger to the perils of the great outdoors after being part of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

And so this may explain why the former Health Secretary, 44, took Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins in his stride. He recently revealed that when he was smacked in the face during the mentally and physically challenging show, it "didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected." Mr Hancock, who quit as Health Secretary in 2021 after he was exposed for breaking social distancing rules amid the Covid pandemic, was paired with former footballer Jermaine Pennant.

Matt Hancock during tge gruelling tasks in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins (Channel 4)

But it looks as though Mr Hancock preferred this pairing to someone who was "bigger" or a "woman." Speaking to the PA news agency, the disgraced former MP said of his pairing: "He’s a former England footballer and he’s no softy. At the same time, I was relieved that I wasn’t being paired with somebody even bigger. Or a woman. But I thought this is a bad moment! It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I expected actually, being smacked in the face.”

But while Mr Hancock's admissions do not reveal the true hardships of being on the show, it looks as though Jermaine, 40, found it tough. He said: "Surroundings, where I was living, the food – it was difficult to take on. Every time I had a mouth full of rice I started to gag. But… you’re not on your own, everybody else is going through that as well. You just have to keep going.”

Mr Hancock had previously stated that he joined the reality TV show to "push" and test his limits. He added: "I wanted to do it to push my limits, to test my limits. I’d just come through a pretty tough period being the Health Secretary during the pandemic, so I wanted to test my physical limits.”

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Mr Hancock said he wanted to push his limits while on the show (Channel 4)

The father of three was forced the step down as Health Secretary after The Sun published pictures and a video of the former MP kissing his former aid Gina Coladangelo inside the Department of Health on 6 May 2021. Mr Hancock ended his 15-year marriage to his wife, Martha and it seems that he has continued to maintain a relationship with Gina.

At the time, his Tory contemporaries alongside members of the Labour Party had called for Mr Hancock to be sacked. One year after his decision to step away from politics, Mr Hancock wasted no time entering the world of reality TV, and it's perhaps easy to understand why, considering his fee for making appearances in reality shows.

Mr Hancock was reportedly paid the astonishing amount of £320,000 for appearing on I'm A Celeb. But, according to reports, he gave 3% of that fee to charity. However, apart from his donation, it remains unclear what Mr Hancock has actually splashed his cash on. On entering the jungle TV star received huge backlash from his fellow politicians and the public for seemingly abandoning his constituents in favour of a new career as a reality TV star.

Since his stint in the jungle, the estranged father of three was reportedly paid another eye-watering sum of £45,000 for his latest appearance on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. While the amount may not seem that much considering some of the fees fans have become used to hearing about, Mr Hancock earned that money for doing an estimated 80 hours of work.

Lucretia Munro