ITV's I'm a Celebrity is back on our screens in a different guise at the moment, in the form of I'm A Celebrity... South Africa. The 'all star' cast are back for the challenge, and while only two episodes of the show have been aired so far, Happy Monday's frontman Shaun Ryder has already begun opening up to his fellow campmates.
Joining Shaun in the series is boxing champion Amir Khan; Diversity dancer and presenter Jordan Banjo; former Countdown icon and TV presenter Carol Vorderman; Olympic athlete Fatima Whitbread; former Royal butler Paul Burrell; Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan; ex-England cricketer Phil Tufnell and supermodel Janice Dickinson.
Hosted by Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly, the spin-off show swapping Australia for South Africa is pre-recorded so there will be no public vote - celebrities will progress as they take on challenges. What does remain the same is the diet of rice and beans staple and campmates sharing personal stories with one another. Shaun was one of the first contestants to let fellow campmates and viewers into a secret - the real reason for wearing sunglasses at night.
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As night fell on their first night in camp, Shaun was heard telling his co-stars that he wasn't wearing shades for the sake of it. The singer said: "I'm not a t*** wearing sunglasses when it's dark. I've got no eyelashes, so all the s*** gets in my eyes."
Amir reassured him with a pat on the shoulder, telling the singer: "Oh, don't worry!" Carol, however, seemed shocked as she asked: "What?!"
Manchester Evening News reported that back in 2019, Shaun had previously explained the reason behind his changed appearance as 'all body his hair falls out'. During an interview with Good Morning Britain and Radio X, he explained that he had been diagnosed with unexplained alopecia following hip surgery.
At the time, Shaun explained: "I've just had a new hip, and at the same time all my body hair decides to fall out. No eyelashes, no fingernails, no head, no hair whatsoever. We don’t really know… Because I have an underactive thyroid that makes you put on weight and slow down, they thought it might have been linked to that or the fact I don't produce testosterone anymore."
Continuing, he added: "They thought it might be linked to that. Now it doesn't look like that. They said it might be stress related, but I'm the least stressed I've ever been in my life, so they've got a lot more experimenting on me to find out."
Fans also couldn't believe Shaun's admission about not having eyelashes and rushed to Twitter to comment on it during the show.
Last year, the Black Grape singer joked he is taking 'more pills now' than in his heyday as he provided a health update. He told Daily Star : "It's because I don't have a thyroid, mine was underactive which makes you fat and bald but once that goes then everything starts to grate down and you have to take lots of tablets. And I don't produce testosterone now so I'm on more pills now than I was in 1988."
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