Bear Grylls reveals horror moment his ‘world went dark’ in botched skydiving accident that broke back in three places

BEAR Grylls has revisited the terrifying time he almost died after his parachute malfunctioned back in 1996.

The TV adventurer admitted that the recovery process following the accident was a 'dark time’ for him - but ultimately taught him to appreciate life.

On Tuesday's instalment of  Good Morning Britain, presented by Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins, Bear opened up about the terrifying moment his parachute wouldn’t inflate and failed on him during a skydiving excursion with friends in Zimbabwe.

The accident happened during Bear's routine break while serving in the Territorial Army in Southern Africa with the SAS.

The TV star recalled being 21 years old at the time of the incident, which caused his back to break in three places, as he narrowly missed becoming paralysed after falling from 16,000 feet.

Fortunately, Bear avoided breaking his spinal cord by millimetres. 

During the morning programme, Bear told the hosts: “I think at the time you’re just desperately trying to sort it out. It was getting dark, you’re just in a sort of fuzz of, ‘what’s wrong, can I sort this, have I got time to go for this reserve?'

“And then, you know, in a heartbeat, ‘boom’, the world sort of went black.

“I came to, a long journey back to eventually this African hospital, and I remember a doctor sticking a syringe in my back and suddenly the pain going and me thinking, 'I’m better’, trying to get up. And they were going, ‘You’re not better.’”

The dad of three, who is married to his wife, Shara, described the impact the incident had on him, physically and mentally.

He relayed: “That was a difficult time. I broke my back in three places, I was in Africa at the time and spent months and months back in military rehabilitation in the UK afterwards.”

Bear previously spoke about the incident during a Radio Times podcast, where he recalled: “It was a dark time. Physicality was such an inherent part of my life, my upbringing, my job in the military – and suddenly I couldn’t even reach a bathroom without being in agony.”

Bear admitted that the accident changed his outlook on life after spending 18 months in recovery.

The 49-year-old added: ”I had an awareness that I was lucky – I should have been paralysed. I was within millimetres of severing my spinal cord. I’d been given a second chance, and it gave me a gratitude for life that I didn’t have before.”

At 23 years old, Bear broke world records and became one of the youngest people ever to climb Everest two years after his spinal injury.

Last month, it was unveiled that he led a secret expedition to Everest earlier this year intending to recover his deceased friend and the brother of Spencer Matthews’s body. 

Michael Matthews died at the age of 22 in 1999 during a mountaineering accident hours after surpassing his friend Bear and became the youngest Brit to conquer the world's highest peak.