Gareth Gates has got a lot of love from Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins fans after talking out about being tormented at school because of his stutter.
The 39-year-old former singer was first exposed to the public in 2001, when he was just 17, during the auditions for the first season of Pop Idol.
Gareth mentioned to the producers of the reality talent show before his tryouts that he has a stutter since infancy.
He finally made it to the final two, but lost to eventual victor Will Young, and went on to have his own successful pop career between 2002 and 2007.
Gareth has returned to reality television on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, years later, and has spoken out about being tormented during school.
When queried about his background by the show’s DS, he stammered his way through revealing he was teased at school for it, ultimately fighting back tears.
‘For me… growing up was hard,’ he began. ‘At school [it was difficult], having a stammer, it was hard.’
The Anyone of Us singer had to psyche himself up to continue: ‘I was verbally and physically abused. Lads were just holding me down and shouting out things.’
‘[They used to shout] “Let’s beat the words out of him!”, and I think that’s why I’m here, to kind of show myself this time that I’m stronger,’ he added.
He concluded: ‘I want to show myself that, hopefully, this time I won’t break.’
On Twitter, one viewer supported him: ‘Gareth, brilliant effort on tonight’s SAS. As someone who was bullied in school, I think you’re a huge inspiration.’
Another user agreed, saying, ‘How impressive is Gareth,’ while another person watching on said the Spirit in the Sky singer was ‘worth 10 bullies’.
Gareth presented Stop My Stutter, a BBC Three documentary series, after earning four number one songs in 2002 and 2003.
Gareth began the latest stage of his journey with a stutter earlier this year after appearing on BBC Breakfast to ‘overcome the anxiety’ of speaking in public.
He said: ‘You can’t really overcome that fear unless you force yourself into situations – this is really, really hard for me – until you face it head on.’
Celebrity SAS participant Danielle Lloyd also had a difficult night, opening up about being assaulted in a past relationship.
Danielle confessed: ‘I’ve been in really controlling relationships, I was really young, naive. My boyfriend at the time almost segregated from the family.’
Watch Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins on Sundays at 9pm on Channel 4.
