I’m A Celebrity latecomer Tony Bellew almost quit show over family heartbreak – before he’d even flown out to Australia
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I'M A Celebrity latecomer Tony Bellew almost quit the show over a family heartbreak - before he'd even flown out to Australia.
The legendary boxer was hit by a family tragedy just a day before the show launched.
Sadly, just ahead of his jungle stint Tony has revealed his beloved grandmother has died.
Tony, 40, said: "I signed the day before she passed away, so there was no going back then. If I sign something, I honour my agreement.
"In an ideal world I would have left it but I had signed. I was coming, so I am here. But I am going back to bury her on the 15th.
"I was going to renegade if I couldn't move the burial date. I can bury her now when I get back."
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His beloved nan was 97 years old and helped to raise him.
The star added to : 'She was in a home. And she told my mum 'I'll be able to watch that [I'm A Celeb] every night'.
"So yeah, it is what it is. She'll be watching, you know, from wherever she is and whatever she's doing. She was a diamond of an old lady. She was wonderful.
"I come from a single parent household, my dad left when I was 10. So when you come from where I come from, your Nan helps around a lot because your mother goes to work. So your nan is your second mum.
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"She was a lovely, lovely woman, and she had the heart of gold, so she'll be missed by all of us. Me and my brothers and my mother and my dad by the way as well."
The Sun previously revealed that former heavyweight boxer Tony is the third out of this year’s camp to have traded jabs with the ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage before the show.
Just months ago the championship fighter, 40, branded Farage an “absolute maniac” for his opinion on immigration.
Tony will join Jockey Frankie Dettori, 52, as a latecome in camp on Wednesday night's I'm a Celebrity.
The pair are thrown straight into the deep end with a stomach-churning trial.