Photo: Ashley Cain Instagram
The last edition of the new show about pushing celebrities to their limits, called “Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins,” had a quite emotional moment as the ex-Coventry City football player Ashley Cain recalled a deep and heartbreaking moment from his past. As the show aired this Sunday on Channel 4, the ex-footballer reached the final of one of the most extenuating and thought-provoking shows out there, pushing the celebrities to their limits trying to mimic what Special Air Service or SAS soldiers go through during their selection.
When asked where he finds the strength to keep on going in those difficult situations, he lets go and cries a lot when telling the story of his lost girl, called Azaylia Diamond, who died only after 8 months of birth. A very aggressive type of leukemia took the best of his child, even when he related that “she was very tough and battled it for a long time,” since the diagnosis came when she was only 2 months old. And he added that when he was facing a hard situation, he always thought to himself, “If you are finding it tough, just ask yourself what would Azaylia do? And go out and smash it. ”
Even though some people knew about his situation, many in the audience didn’t know about this enormous heartbreak, and most of the people present when he told the story broke down in tears as he spoke about his dead daughter. When asked about his controlled aggression, he said he was in a “very transitional moment of my life,” and as he sobbed, he added that “I’m a family man, always been, had a beautiful baby girl, and only two months into my daughter being born, we found out she had a very aggressive form of leukemia… She showed strength, she showed courage, and sadly lost her life on the 24th of April. She passed away in my arms, and it’s a moment I’ll never forget. ”
Covered in tears, the lead element of the “Alpha team” said that “All I wanted to know, at that point, was that if Azaylia goes, she will go in my arms and she will go peacefully. At eight months old, she passed away in my and my partner’s arms, and I believe she had a peaceful transition to the other side. ” These words resonated deeply in the audience, as millions of Tweets with a reference to his lost daughter went out minutes after he told this hard story, in the mix of different topics covered by this social media, as music licensing was another of the main tendencies that day.
Where did he express it?
Cain told this story as he was questioned about his anger problems, since he was one of the most “aggressive” members of his team, and maybe the entire show. But he explained, minutes before this touching moment, that it’s not aggression against his teammates or rivals, but the fact that he “punishes” himself since he feels that he is failing Azaylia. Even when this ex-model and footballer is at the tip of the news vanguard, as he’s always at charity events, as he’s also the lead of the Azaylia Foundation, the organization he put together with his partner to help children with cancer in the United Kingdom, but also in the world.
This impressive work as a humanitarian is a great contrast to the aggressive and sometimes over-the-line attitude he used to have on the football field and in these simulated warfare conditions. But as many people say, war and sickness have the power to take the worst out of humanity, and Ashley Cain isn’t a superhuman or anything like that. He’s also vulnerable to these kinds of situations, as hard as they come with the loss of a child.
But he also shows a sensitive and human side to it, as he’s always leading his partners and trying to get the best out of them, even when sometimes he “explodes” with rage when some things don’t go according to plan. In particular, in such a sensitive moment as they are going through as a team, as they are in the finals of this impressive and revealing show.
It’s also maybe in human nature to be able to express that stuff well down our unconscious when undergoing intensive pressure, as Ashley Cain never cried before. Other participants of the show have also shown some of their weaknesses as the SAS training gets the best out of them. There are several shows that take this concept and turn it into great interviews. One that comes to mind is the famous hot wings eating show called “Hot Ones,” featuring great stars in Hollywood and music eating really spicy wings and talking about their lives.
Eventually, Ashley Cain couldn’t make it to the top four selected as the “SAS members” in the finals, which aired the past 16 of this month and had Maisie Smith, AJ Pritchard, Calum Best, and Ferne McCann as the winners, in a very intense 40 minute trial in the Jordanian Desert. The show started with 14 celebrities to find that only four of them completed all the trials needed to become a Special Air Service member.