The popular actor and DJ jumped at the chance to take part in I’m A Celebrity South Africa after leaving the jungle in 2014 following his brother’s sudden death<\/h2>\n\n![\"I'M](\"https:\/\/i2-prod.rsvplive.ie\/article36981118.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/0_embargoed_until_30th_march_im_a_celebrity_south_africa_13.jpg\")
<\/div>\nI’M A CELEBRITY SOUTH AFRICA. Pictured : ACTOR AND DJ CRAIG CHARLES.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Craig Charles is back on I’m A Celebrity for a second shot at the hit ITV<\/a> show.<\/p>\nThe former Coronation Street<\/a> star is part of the line-up of the new South African series, which started airing on Virgin Media One<\/a> this week.<\/p>\nI’m A Celebrity South Africa<\/a> sees former contestants return for another crack at jungle life, and Craig signed up for a very emotional reason.<\/p>\nThe actor and DJ first appeared on the 2014 season of the hit ITV series, fronted by TV royalty Ant and Dec<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut his time in the jungle was cut short, as four days in Craig learned the devastating news that his brother Dean died of a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Craig and Dean had not spoken that much for a few years before signing up to I’m A Celebrity.<\/p>\n
“If I could have one last conversation with anyone it would be my brother Dean. He tried to get hold of me just before I went into the jungle,” Craig told The Big Issue in 2020.<\/p>\n
“We’d not spoken for a few years, there was a family falling out. And I just thought, ‘You know what, I’ll leave it, go and do the jungle thing and I’ll come out and we’ll all be together for Christmas<\/a>.'”<\/p>\nHe continued: “And he died while I was over there… The doctor said: ‘I’ve got some terrible news to tell you, Craig. Your brother Dean has passed away.’<\/p>\n
“So I had to get on a plane straight away. He was so far away. And it took so long to get back.<\/p>\n
“I’d have loved to have had a conversation with him. I’d have loved to have made up.”<\/p>\n
Craig didn’t get an opportunity to return to the jungle after his initial appearance.<\/p>\n
He also admitted that he found it hard to watch I’m A Celebrity in the years that followed Dean’s death.<\/p>\n
But when the opportunity to take part in the “legends” spin-off series was presented to him, Craig jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the show airing, Craig said: “At first, I’m A Celebrity felt bittersweet after I’d left. And in the first few years I couldn’t watch the show.<\/p>\n
“It made me sad and it opened a world of loss.<\/p>\n
“Every year it came around, I would feel a sense of loss and a feeling of what might have been \u2013 both for my brother and for me. He was only 52 and he would have been 63 now, which is no age.<\/p>\n
“But that feeling has decreased over the years, and the last few years I have been able to watch it again without feeling the pain and the grief.<\/p>\n
“And so, when this came round, it was at the right time. I feel strong and confident enough to face it again and have a laugh.”<\/p>\n
Craig hopes to make Dean proud on the show.<\/p>\n
He added: “I found out when I got back for the funeral that after the first episode, he turned to his wife and said: ‘he is going to win that’.<\/p>\n
“But sadly, Dean never woke up and so hopefully I will make him proud.”<\/p>\n
This series of I’m A Celebrity South Africa was filmed last year and Craig is joined in the jungle by several big names including Beverley Callard<\/a>, Harry Redknapp, Ashley Roberts and Gemma Collins.<\/p>\nWant to<\/strong> see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> <\/strong>? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google,<\/strong> simply click here<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsvplive.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The popular actor and DJ jumped at the chance to take part in I’m A Celebrity South Africa after leaving the jungle in 2014 following his brother’s sudden death I’M A CELEBRITY SOUTH AFRICA. Pictured : ACTOR AND DJ CRAIG CHARLES. Craig Charles is back on I’m A Celebrity for a second shot at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2362866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[373061,27065],"class_list":["post-2362865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-im-a-celebrity","tag-itv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Im-A-Celebritys-Craig-Charles-heartbreaking-reason-for-return-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362867,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865\/revisions\/2362867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/div>\nI’M A CELEBRITY SOUTH AFRICA. Pictured : ACTOR AND DJ CRAIG CHARLES.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Craig Charles is back on I’m A Celebrity for a second shot at the hit ITV<\/a> show.<\/p>\n The former Coronation Street<\/a> star is part of the line-up of the new South African series, which started airing on Virgin Media One<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n I’m A Celebrity South Africa<\/a> sees former contestants return for another crack at jungle life, and Craig signed up for a very emotional reason.<\/p>\n The actor and DJ first appeared on the 2014 season of the hit ITV series, fronted by TV royalty Ant and Dec<\/a>.<\/p>\n But his time in the jungle was cut short, as four days in Craig learned the devastating news that his brother Dean died of a heart attack.<\/p>\n Craig and Dean had not spoken that much for a few years before signing up to I’m A Celebrity.<\/p>\n “If I could have one last conversation with anyone it would be my brother Dean. He tried to get hold of me just before I went into the jungle,” Craig told The Big Issue in 2020.<\/p>\n “We’d not spoken for a few years, there was a family falling out. And I just thought, ‘You know what, I’ll leave it, go and do the jungle thing and I’ll come out and we’ll all be together for Christmas<\/a>.'”<\/p>\n He continued: “And he died while I was over there… The doctor said: ‘I’ve got some terrible news to tell you, Craig. Your brother Dean has passed away.’<\/p>\n “So I had to get on a plane straight away. He was so far away. And it took so long to get back.<\/p>\n “I’d have loved to have had a conversation with him. I’d have loved to have made up.”<\/p>\n Craig didn’t get an opportunity to return to the jungle after his initial appearance.<\/p>\n He also admitted that he found it hard to watch I’m A Celebrity in the years that followed Dean’s death.<\/p>\n But when the opportunity to take part in the “legends” spin-off series was presented to him, Craig jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n Ahead of the show airing, Craig said: “At first, I’m A Celebrity felt bittersweet after I’d left. And in the first few years I couldn’t watch the show.<\/p>\n “It made me sad and it opened a world of loss.<\/p>\n “Every year it came around, I would feel a sense of loss and a feeling of what might have been \u2013 both for my brother and for me. He was only 52 and he would have been 63 now, which is no age.<\/p>\n “But that feeling has decreased over the years, and the last few years I have been able to watch it again without feeling the pain and the grief.<\/p>\n “And so, when this came round, it was at the right time. I feel strong and confident enough to face it again and have a laugh.”<\/p>\n Craig hopes to make Dean proud on the show.<\/p>\n He added: “I found out when I got back for the funeral that after the first episode, he turned to his wife and said: ‘he is going to win that’.<\/p>\n “But sadly, Dean never woke up and so hopefully I will make him proud.”<\/p>\n This series of I’m A Celebrity South Africa was filmed last year and Craig is joined in the jungle by several big names including Beverley Callard<\/a>, Harry Redknapp, Ashley Roberts and Gemma Collins.<\/p>\n Want to<\/strong> see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> <\/strong>? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google,<\/strong> simply click here<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsvplive.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The popular actor and DJ jumped at the chance to take part in I’m A Celebrity South Africa after leaving the jungle in 2014 following his brother’s sudden death I’M A CELEBRITY SOUTH AFRICA. Pictured : ACTOR AND DJ CRAIG CHARLES. Craig Charles is back on I’m A Celebrity for a second shot at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2362866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[373061,27065],"class_list":["post-2362865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-im-a-celebrity","tag-itv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Im-A-Celebritys-Craig-Charles-heartbreaking-reason-for-return-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362867,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362865\/revisions\/2362867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}