Having once been doused in cockroaches and mealworms during a bushtucker trial on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Louise Minchin is no stranger to unpleasant creatures.
Now, the former BBC Breakfast host has revealed that she marked her 56th birthday last weekend by allowing herself be stung by a swarm of jellyfish to test her resilience.
‘I’ve just been swimming with jellyfish in the Scilly Isles,’ she told the Daily Mail at the launch party for her novel, Isolation Island, at the Revery bar at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
‘I like being scared because you learn from it. I thought, “If I swim through these jellyfish, I can do really hard things”.’
Showing off the scars on her hands, she added: ‘I was wearing a wetsuit. Anywhere not covered by the wetsuit, I got jellyfish purple stingers. It was really painful.’
Minchin revealed she had been swimming with jellyfish in the Scilly Isles
The former BBC Breakfast star decided to swim through the creatures and was painfully stung on parts of her body not covered by the wetsuit
Jellyfish stings usually cause instant pain and skin inflammation. Some can cause allergic reactions and in rare cases can be life-threatening.
The TV presenter, who has two daughters with her husband David Minchin, shared a video online last weekend of her swim off Tresco in the Scillies.
Posing in her wetsuit after her birthday plunge, she commented: ‘Very proud that I got through them [jellyfish].’
Local media reported last week that hundreds of thousands of purple Mauve Stinger jellyfish had washed up on the island of St Mary’s.
One local photographer, Nikki Banfield, said: ‘We get Mauve Stingers fairly regularly in Scilly – but in bulk like this, hundreds of thousands, is not common.’
Ruth Chamberlain, Lead Aquarist at Sea Life London Aquarium, said Mauve Stinger jellyfish, known to produce a painful sting, ‘are very toxic creatures’.
Minchin, whose new novel envisages a gruelling reality show that turns deadly, says she would like to compete on I’m A Celebrity again, but this time in Australia, the hit ITV show’s usual location.
Minchin at the launch of her debut novel Isolation Island at the London Hilton on Park Lane yesterday where she told the Daily Mail she had been swimming with jelly fish
The TV presenter is an avid swimmer, as seen in countless photos on her Instagram
Louise Minchen on I’m A Celebrity during Series 21 which was filmed at Gwrych Castle in North Wales in 2021
She appeared in 2021 when it was filmed at Gwrych Castle in North Wales due to stringent Covid-19 travel restrictions Down Under.
‘I would do it in Australia, when they ask me,’ she told this newspaper.
‘I’m a massive fan of I’m a Celebrity. I’m prepared now because I’ve just been swimming with jellyfish.’
