Roxanne Pallett bursts into tears and suffers crippling panic attack before leaving Bear Grylls’ Celebrity Island
In floods of tears, she tells her co-stars the stench of the smoke reminded her of thinking she was doing to die
ROXANNE Pallett burst into tears and suffered a crippling panic attack in the hours leading up to her shock exit from Bear Grylls’ Celebrity Island.
She begged producers to allow her to quit and told them: “I’m really suffering and struggling with my thoughts.”
In scenes that will air in the coming days, Roxanne wakes up in the middle of the night after smelling the smoke from the campfire and suffers a breakdown.
The upsetting footage shows Roxanne shaking and crying uncontrollably as her co-stars, including Pete Wicks and Martin Kemp, try to comfort her.
Roxanne manages to explain smell of smoke is bringing back horrific memories of when she was trapped inside a house fire with her family.
She tells her co-stars: “Smoke that nearly killed my family in a house fire when I was 16, the smoke, the smell is taking me back to that time.
“It feels like it’s happening again.”
As she sobs, she clings onto those around her before help is called in.
The next morning, Roxanne tells the others she is struggling to cope following the flashbacks she suffered in the night.
She explains: “The smoke reminded me of gasping for air thinking I was going to die.
“I want to last the whole way but it’s not the physical challenge, it’s the mental challenge.”
Talking to the cameras, Roxanne then decides to leave and begs the show’s producers to come and take her from the island - just five days after she arrived.
She says: “I’m really suffering and struggling with my thoughts.
“Please can you come and get me now. I cannot cope. Enough is enough.”
Looking back retrospectively at the event, when she knows she is going to leave, Roxanne tells the cameras: “I never thought it would open up a box in my mind that I locked away for twenty years.
“The smoke was so thick, I kept thinking about being trapped in our house. Every breath of smoke felt like our last…”
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Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island was filmed before Celebrity Big Brother, where Roxanne quit after claims Ryan Thomas had punched her.
She has now stepped away from the public eye and is spending time with her family.
Celebrity Island starts on Channel 4 on 9 September.
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