Kirsty Leigh-Porter says her decision to quit the latest series of ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ amid her crippling panic attacks was “absolutely gutting”.
Kirsty Leigh-Porter says her decision to quit the latest series of ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ amid her crippling panic attacks was ‘absolutely gutting’
The ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘Hollyoaks’ actress, 34, revealed she started to struggle with isolation training and during a traumatic gas-mask challenge, designed to trigger a stress response as the Channel 4 show’s contestants battle to escape a room while breathing in tear gas.
Kirsty told The Sun: “It just got to a point where I started to think and process what was actually happening.
“We had already done two weeks of isolation in the middle of Vietnam having not been able to speak to family. I think my brain was triggered from the stress response and that triggered a huge panic attack.
“I was just feeling so breathless and weak and seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack.
“But I was absolutely gutted, I just felt like I failed.
“I knew I could have done better but it’s just debilitating suffering panic attacks.”
“My experience did make me realise I have to spend a lot more time working on me, taking baby steps and not giant leaps to a jungle!”
Despite being one of the earliest quitters of the SAS show, John Barrowman, 56, was rumoured to have walked out of 2024’s series, which was filmed this summer, after half-an-hour.
The Sun previously revealed Kirsty was the first to leave the process this series.
An insider had claimed she only lasted around an hour.
The newspaper said she had been was cast on the show in a bid to draw in younger viewers thanks to her appeal on youth-orientated ‘Hollyoaks’.
Kirsty did weight training and running to prepare, and said about why she wanted to take part: “I feel like as you get older, you get a bit lost as to who you are, who I used to be, who I am as a mother, as a partner, as my (‘Hollyoaks’) character Leela (Lomax.)
“You kind of get lost amongst it all so I wanted to break contact with every day life strip back mentally and physically and face me and see what my limits and boundaries are.”
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