I'm A Celebrity's Ant McPartlin in tears as Barry McGuigan opens up about daughter's death

Ant McPartlin confessed that watching Barry McGuigan discuss his daughter's death deeply affected him.

The hosts of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! appeared on the ITV2 spin-off show, I'm A Celebrity ...Unpacked, shortly after some emotional scenes were broadcast on the main programme on Monday. During the second episode of the 2024 series, viewers saw McGuigan being comforted by his campmates as he became emotional while discussing his late daughter, who passed away five weeks after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019.

Ant, who became a father for the first time earlier this year, told hosts Joel Dommett, Kemi Rodgers and reigning King of the Jungle Sam Thompson, that he had watched the emotional scenes before the 9pm broadcast. "That really got me," the new dad admitted.

"We watched it earlier in the day, before the show, and I was crying," he continued. "I can't imagine losing a child and he didn't want to go there but he couldn't help it. I thought the campmates were really lovely with him," reports the Mirror.

Danika 'Nika' McGuigan, the former boxing champion's daughter, died on July 23, 2019, at the age of 33, after her second battle with cancer. The Dublin-based star, known for her role as Danielle in the BBC Three comedy Can't Cope, Won't Cope, initially beat leukaemia after two years of treatment when she was diagnosed at the age of 11.

McGuigan shared with his jungle campmates: "She had leukaemia, when I was making the movie The Boxer with Daniel Day Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she'd been diagnosed with leukaemia, they thought she wasn't going to get better but she fought back and she won it. She had two years of chemo, she was good, she came back."

His fellow campmates, including McFly's Danny Jones and N-Dubz star Tulisa Contostavlos, rallied around the former boxer as he became emotional. "You're a man going through pain and you're vulnerable about it, that takes strength. There is no rules to grieving... it's a reflection of your love," Contostavlos comforted him.

"Thank you, you're all so lovely, I really appreciate it," McGuigan responded. The Irish star then went on to share details about his late daughter's second bout with cancer.

"It was hard for weeks in the hospital, just watching, shocking," he said tearfully. McGuigan revealed his daughter had "done all this work to get to where she was" having starred in the critically acclaimed film Wildfire, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020.

"(She) never got to see the opening of it," McGuigan lamented. He told Loose Woman's Jane Moore that his daughter had "suffered so much pain and said 'mum I can't hold on'" before her death. "Stage 4 bowel cancer, five weeks, five weeks she died," he disclosed.

The family expressed their profound sorrow as they announced: "It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of our beautiful daughter and sister, Danika 'Nika' McGuigan. After a brief but brave battle against cancer, Nika passed away peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday July 23, surrounded by her loving family. As a family, we are devastated and ask for complete privacy during this difficult period to allow us to grieve for our Nika."

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is on ITV1 and ITVX