I'm A Celeb Dean McCullough's heartbreaking past from homelessness to struggles with 'dark days'
One of the stars of this year's I'm A Celebrity holds a heartbreaking past, during which they have had to struggle with homelessness and 'dark days'.
Dean McCullough is now one of the most recognisable voices on BBC Radio 1 and is preparing for up to three weeks in the jungle alongside fellow celebs such as Coleen Rooney and Oti Mabuse.
While he now may seem to live a glamorous lifestyle hosting the Radio 1 shows and making regular appearances as a panellist on Big Brother: Late & Live, it wasn't always an easy road for the broadcaster.
It was only earlier this year that Dean actually opened up about his experience of hidden homelessness, which is where people are either stuck in temporary accommodation, or find themselves forced to couch surf in other people's homes. Dean admitted in a candid conversation with The Big Issue, that he didn't ever consider he used to homeless himself as he wasn't sleeping rough.
However he recognises that the instability he suffered, would have a 'huge' impact on mental health of young people going through similar situations.
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He said: “We weren’t living on the street, we were living on my aunt’s house on a sofa. I was moving between houses on a regular basis.”
Dean explained that he and his family had no fixed address for a year after his parents split up, while he also spent years couch surfing after he first moved to London to pursue a career in musical theatre. He added: "I have problems with my possessions and feeling like I need to take care of absolutely everything around me. That comes down to moving from house to house and not ever feeling like anything was ever truly mine.”
“As soon as I sensed any kind of danger, I’d be straight out of [where I was staying]… for a long time I had no fixed address. I would go out on the Thursday and just stay out all weekend because I just didn’t want to go home.”
However, it's not just homelessness that Dean has been open about with his fans as he has also spoken about his 'dark days' and problems with alcohol.
Speaking to Scott Thomas on the podcast Learning As I Go Dean revealed: "Alcoholism runs in my family and I've got a lot of friends that have been alcohol dependent so I just thought it was my turn."
He continued: "I looked at my bins in my apartment and it was like, three bottles of red, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of prosecco, I was like 'who drank that?' Oh it was me."
Dean is now sober but says that he went through some of his darkest times during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is when he discovered drinking was an issue for him while hosting the breakfast show on Gaydio.
He told iNews: “It was the pandemic, and I just got myself into a bad way and I was sort of thinking some really, really dark thoughts to myself. Anybody who’s kind of struggled with mental health will know what it’s like.
“I just saw the path in front of me and it wasn’t nice. It was really dark and it was very destructive and I thought, if I want to get to Radio 1, which was always my dream, if I want to do that, I need to make some changes.”
I'm A Celebrity returns on Sunday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
