Home & Away star Axle Whitehead said he signed up to participate in Channel 4's reality series, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, after going through "a difficult" time in his life.
Speaking to HELLO! at a press event ahead of the new season, the 44-year-old revealed that he was originally asked to take part in the show a few years ago but failed the medical test following a spine disc replacement and a spine fusion. "I've always wanted to do it. I got asked a few years ago, and I'd had a spine disc replacement and a spine fusion, and I thought I was kind of ready, and then didn't pass the medical," he said.
"In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't do it then," added the star, who would have to carry a heavy Bergen backpack as part of the training.
© Agency via ZUMA/ShutterstockRevealing why now was the right time to join the line-up, Axle, who is perhaps best known for playing Liam Murphy in the Australian soap opera Home and Away and Davis in the American remake of Shameless, said: "I grew up in the country, so doing outdoorsy, wild stuff, I love it. I love racing motorbikes and shooting guns and all that kind of stuff. So I was just attracted to that."
"I've been through a difficult part of my life, a relationship breakdown and surgery and a few other sort of personal things and I was looking for a challenge," continued the actor and musician, who announced his engagement to long-term girlfriend Liezl Carstens back in 2020.
"It just came along at the perfect time, and it was exactly what it needed," he said, adding: "It ended up being quite literally a life changing experience for me. It really was."
What is Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins?
In the new, eight-part series of the popular reality show, 14 British and Australian celebrities will be pushed to their limits in the brutal heat of North Africa as they embark on a condensed version of SAS selection.
© Pete Dadds/Channel 4The group will be split into two teams, Team UK and Team Australia, which will compete head to head as they undergo the brutal physical and mental course, led by Chief Instructor, Billy Billingham MBE and his team of Directing Staff - Foxy (Jason Fox), Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver.
But will any of these celebrities make it to the end of this physically demanding and psychologically gruelling course?
Who is in this year's line-up of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins?
Joining Australian actor Axle Whitehead are TV Personalities, Dani Dyer, Gabby Allen and Jessika Power; social media stars Jack Joseph and Cole Anderson-James; Neighbours actors, Ryan Moloney and Natalie Bassingthwaite; rugby player Ben Cohen; Gladiator and Olympian, Toby Olubi; International cricketers, Graeme Swann and Brad Hodge and Olympic swimmers Emily Seebohm and Mack Horton.
© Pete Dadds/Channel 4Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is available to stream, and watch live, on Sundays and Mondays at 9pm, from 4 January on Channel 4.
