Beverley is looking forward to taking another shot at the jungle crown after first appearing on the show back in 2020, when the series was filmed in a castle in Wales due to filming restrictions as a result of Covid-19
Beverley Callard will appear on this year’s edition of I’m A Celebrity…South Africa(Image: ITV)
Coronation Street legend Beverley Callard is looking forward to swapping the freezing cold weather in Wales for South Africa ahead of her second I’m A Celebrity stint. The star, who played Liz McDonald on the ITV soap, missed out on heading to the Australian jungle in 2020 because of Covid restrictions, instead filming in a castle in Wales, but she’s hoping to throw herself into the experience for the All Stars spin-off. Her appearance on the show – filmed back in September – came just months before she revealed she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Tonight viewers will get to see a line-up of All Stars head to South Africa with the icons from series gone by battling to be crowned king or queen of the jungle once again. Ant and Dec are back as hosts and will welcome the returning campmates into the spectacular location as ITV promises some of the most epic and extreme trials in I’m A Celebrity history.
The special series was filmed last year, and the cast features several big names including actor Craig Charles, Olympian Mo Farah, an Essex diva in Gemma Collins and a King and a Queen of the Jungle – Harry Redknapp and Scarlett Moffatt.
Here, we look at the star’s life ahead of the show’s return.
Second time lucky
Beverley, 69, appeared on I’m A Celeb back in 2020, when the series was filmed in a castle in Wales(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Beverley, 69, appeared on I’m A Celeb back in 2020, when the series was filmed in a castle in Wales due to filming restrictions as a result of Covid-19. She placed tenth, and said the experience boosted her self- confidence.
She said: “I do tend to suffer from low self-esteem and without sounding big headed, because people kept telling me they loved me and how down to earth I was. It gave me confidence and it was lovely to be with such a wonderful group of people.
“Our series was during Covid and the nation/world had had such a bad time, it was a real feel-good show. Everyone got on so well and we still meet up. We’ve got a WhatsApp group and we go out to dinner together.”
Bev didn’t hesitate when she got the call this time around. She explained: “I was really flattered when I got the call. In fact, I was gobsmacked! But I said yes because Wales was so different.”
Corrie exit
Beverley gained a legion of fans thanks to her role as barmaid Liz McDonald in the ITV soap(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Beverley gained a legion of fans thanks to her role as barmaid Liz McDonald in the ITV soap. She played the character for 30 years before announcing her departure in 2019. Beverley previously had two breaks from the show – pne for her mental health in 2010 and another to pursue other roles in her acting career.
Her exit was announced by Liz’ son Steve (Simon Gregson) revealing in a throwaway comment that she’d emigrated to Spain. She never got to shoot her final scenes after a hip operation.
At the time, she told Loose Women her decision was partly down to her fears she’d be killed off in the 60-year anniversary special. But in 2021, Beverley claimed she was axed from a special episode of Coronation Street because of her struggles with her mental health.
Then, in 2023, the star said the quality of the scripts had declined. Speaking on the How to Be 60 podcast, she said: “I just felt that the scripts weren’t what they used to be. I’m trying to be diplomatic. I wasn’t miserable, it’s difficult to put into words.
“But years ago, we used to get the script and you’d think ‘Oh my God, this is amazing, I cannot believe I’m going to be filming this!’ but for me it got to, well, they didn’t write for me as much because I was older and that really got to me.
“If you’re there, you want to be busy. There’s nothing worse than being bored. And I would open the script and think ‘Well we filmed that three years ago’ and it wasn’t very exciting.”
Health battles
The star told fans she had been diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer and underwent her first bout of surgery just over a month ago(Image: Instagram)
It’s been a tough star to the year for Bev. The star told fans she had been diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer and underwent her first bout of surgery just over a month ago. Over the weekend, she explained to fans her upcoming stint in the jungle was pre-recorded and took place before her diagnosis.
Beverley has been open and honest with her followers on social media and had been told that it would take around four weeks to get her results from the first operation, which would indicate whether she is cancer-free.
But the star was thwarted by bad news just before the onset of the long Easter weekend, as she took to Instagram to tearfully explain that she had not yet received her results and heartbreakingly admitted she couldn’t pretend any longer that everything was all right as she headed to a photoshoot to promote her new role on Irish soap Fair City.
She said: “Well, I had to do a photoshoot yesterday and on the way there – it was for a magazine about Fair City – and on the way there, Jon [my husband] was driving, and I was in the passenger seat. My phone rang, and it said the caller ID. Usually, it’s the hospital or one of the consultants from the hospital and I thought ‘Okay, this is it, my results.’ It was one of the amazing cancer care nurses from Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, they are fantastic.
“She wanted to know how I was doing. I told her that I’ve got quite a lot of soreness, which I’ve not had for ages but it came on a few days ago. She said I could be overdoing things, hopefully I’m not, I’ve had a lazy day today. But then she said ‘No results yet because there is a backlog,’ so hopefully I will get them next week.
“You know when your heart is in your mouth? You think ‘This is it. It’s coming now, any minute,’ and then, no, nothing. Obviously, we were still moving in the car, and I just thought ‘I can’t do this now, I cannot paint a smile on my face again.’
At the beginning of March, Beverley told fans that she had around four weeks of waiting to find out if the operation had been a success, and at the time, seemed optimistic about the situation.
She said: “So, the next stage, is, in about four weeks, we will find out if she managed to get all the cancer out and we’ll also get the results of whether it was in the lymph nodes or not.
“If I’m cancer-free, then, a few weeks after that, I will begin radiotherapy. If I’m not cancer-free, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. But I have a feeling I will be. I don’t why I have that feeling but I just have.”
Bev previously battled her way back from a hip injury that nearly left her unable to walk. She’s also been open about her mental health struggles, previously revealing how she “didn’t want to be alive.”
Bev revealed how her husband persuaded her to say how she felt, in a bid to help others. “Jon said to me, just say how you’re really feeling. I’d just had a really bad day, fortunately it was only a couple of days. But he said to say it, because ‘you’d help so many people’,” the soap actress revealed.
Fourth husband
Beverley’s husband Jon McEwan – who she married in 2010 – has been her “rock” throughout her health battle
Beverley’s husband Jon McEwan – who she married in 2010 – has been her “rock” throughout her various health battles. The pair had a huge white wedding a decade ago with 22 bridesmaids.
Bev was first wed to Paul Atkinson in 1974. Two years later, they had daughter Rebecca. In 1980, she married David Sowden and in 1989 she wed Steve Callard. They had son Josh.
But it’s Jon she credits with saving her life. He stood by her when she attempted suicide, spent months in the Priory with mental health issues and lost a fortune through business failures.
Bev proudly declared Jon the ‘love of her life’. The pair met in Spain at a time when Beverley was taking a break from Coronation Street to pursue her career as a fitness instructor. Bev’s pupils were adamant that Jon would be the perfect match for her but she wasn’t impressed when she first laid eyes on him on a blind date.
“I had decided all men are b*****ds by that point,” she previously told the Mirror . “I just wasn’t interested in meeting someone.
“When I saw Jon with his shaved head and gold tooth I wasn’t impressed but within minutes we were chatting away. We went on to sit together at dinner and we got on like a house on fire.”
The pair wound up a nightclub and agreed to meet up the very next day and did the same the following day, until they quickly became inseparable.
In May 2020 Jon proposed on a beach in Spain while Bev was dressed in a baseball cap and wearing no make-up.
They arranged the wedding in just five months – tying the knot in October the same year in a fairytale wedding at Hazlewood Castle Hotel, West Yorkshire.
The Liz McDonald actress wore a floorlength strapless ivory gown and matching lace veil. While Jon cut a dashing figure in a suit set off with an eye-popping pink waistcoast to match Beverley’s bouquet.
Bev roped in 22 bridesmaids and she and Jon got tattoos of their wedding date to commemorate the occasion.
Despite the dreamy start to their union, the couple faced some hardships in years that followed with bankruptcy, family illness and Beverley’s devastating battle with clinical depression that saw her attempt suicide twice.
She credits Jon for pulling her out of a ‘black hole’ and when asked what the secret to their marriage was, Bev revealed the answer was very simple.
“Every morning we have two cups of tea together and a chat and then he does a silly little dance in the kitchen.
“It makes me smile. When I’m at work I miss him. We laugh a lot and I still fancy him rotten. He’s my best friend as well as my husband.”
An equally smitten Jon popped the question all over again in 2017 when the couple were listening to BBC Radio 4.
“A woman was talking about recovering from serious illness and it made us look back on everything we had been through together,” recalled Beverley.
The emotional chat spurred Jon on to pop the question there and then promising a quieter bash than their last big, white wedding.
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at Breast Cancer Support.
I’m A Celeb All Stars launches tonight, at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. It will air every weeknight for three weeks, with the live grand final falling on Friday, April 24.
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