Celebrity SAS descends into chaos as five stars quit early

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is a notoriously tough show, but the 2026 edition of the series was left in chaos as five stars left the show early.

Married at First Sight Australia star Jessika Power was the first to quit after just two episodes, when the stars were put through their paces by doing press-ups and burpees in the dark before competing in a gruelling circuit. The celebs were told that if they were caught cheating, they’d have to start from the beginning, which prompted Power to hand in her armband.

She said: “I can’t do this; I’m going to have to withdraw. I can’t do this. I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”

Monday night’s episode proved she was by no means the last. The reality star was swiftly joined by four other celebrities, three of whom quit dramatically, and one who had to leave due to medical reasons.

The first celeb to throw in the towel was Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 50, who decided to leave after almost fainting during a task. She said prior to leaving: “I would hate to withdraw myself, but if I pushed as hard as I could go, I would be really proud of myself.”

This left the Aussie team two stars short, but it wasn’t long until members of the British team started dropping out as well.

25-year-old influencer Jack Joseph chose to leave the show after struggling during a task that required him to climb 27 flights of stairs, saying that he was “not physically fit enough” to continue, and adding: “I’m done.”

In a VT filmed prior to quitting, he said, “I would consider myself not a quitter, but I think I can be. If I take that armband off, then I will be really disappointed in myself.”

Another blow came when Home and Away actor Axle Whitehead hurt himself during a task, which left him with no sensation in his arm. Medical staff declared that he could not continue in the competition and had to be sent home, a decision which left him in tears.

Staff member Billy Billingham came to talk to Whitehead about his forced withdrawal, asking what he hoped to gain from being on the show. The actor said: “I sort of had a point in my life where I lost myself, lost my motivation and was sort of escaping feelings and not knowing what I wanted to do.

“After doing a bunch of therapy, sort of working on the internal [I realised] I haven’t really put that to the test in a physical sense, in an external sense, that was what this was going to be. That’s what this is.”

Billingham told Whitehead that he was one of the best recruits on the Australian team and that he should be proud of what he achieved on the show.

The final exit came when British social media star Cole Anderson-James, 28, told staff that he wasn’t “mentally strong enough” to endure their gruelling tasks, and so he also withdrew from the competition.

Billingham was not as kind to Anderson-James, saying: “You’ve given up, you’ve taken the easy route which you will continue to do when you walk through that door… f**king waste of f**king space, f**k off.”

This onslaught of exits means that Team Britain is now comprised of Dani Dyer, Gaby Allen, Ben Cohen, Toby Olubi, and Graeme Swann. Team Australia has Ryan Moloney, Brad Hodge, Emily Seebohm, and Mack Horton left.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins airs every Sunday and Monday at 9pm on Channel 4.