Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reveals he thought he was ‘having a heart attack’ and ‘blacked out’ during terrifying raft exercise on Celebrity Bear Hunt

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has revealed that he thought he was ‘having a heart attack’ during a terrifying raft exercise while filming brutal Celebrity Bear Hunt. 

The interior designer and television personality, 59, – best known for appearing on the BBC programme Changing Rooms – is one of the 12 stars taking part in the new survival show with Bear Grylls.

He filmed the show – which comes out on Netflix on Wednesday – last year in the Costa Rican jungle but in a new interview on Tuesday described one of the more challenging tasks he took on.

He said he almost got caught up in a ‘drowning thing’ and was ‘blacking out’ while in the water after having to swim to a raft. 

MailOnline revealed last week Laurence nearly died during the freak raft accident. Sources said that he became entangled in a bungee rope and got stuck underneath the boat. 

He was dragged underwater for several heart-stopping minutes before being pulled to safety by members of the team supervising the stunt, and lost consciousness.

Speaking to Jane Mulkerrins on Times Radio on Tuesday he said of the experience: ‘In my head, I was some kind of Marvel superhero. Actually, by the time I got to the raft that I was supposed to swim to, it dawned on me quite quickly, I’m actually Granddaddy Pig and getting onto the raft was never going to happen. 

‘I got stuck under the raft. I got tangled up in some equipment and stuff and that’s when the drowning thing kind of happened. 

‘But I managed to free myself. I should have stopped at that point and just sort of gathered myself but actually, no, I was then throwing myself into the challenge and then I started blacking out and suddenly, I’ve got Bear on top of me.

‘I didn’t actually have to be resuscitated. Bear was puckering up, he was bearing down on me like a wet bag of spanners, more than happy to resuscitate me, but actually, I came to, at that point.

‘It wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. I mean, it really, really wasn’t. I was blacking out. I thought I was having a heart attack. 

‘And having then been pumped full of, I think it’s about three canisters of oxygen, which is wonderful stuff by the way…but it was a very solitary thing.

‘I always felt that I was quite physically resilient. I have regular medicals. I’m perceived as being reasonably fit for what I am but it did feel slightly like a moment of failure.’

It comes after Laurence said he felt like he was going through an ‘end of life crisis’ after signing up to the show.

He joked his wife Jackie said he was in a ‘mid-life crisis’ when he told her he was appearing in the Netflix show.

Laurence said: ‘Jackie’
s extremely amused. She feels it’s got midlife crisis written all over it, although, as I keep telling her, I’m too old to have a midlife crisis, this is more like an end of life crisis. 

‘She’s actually, frankly, incredibly jealous. She would love to do it and has always been mildly irritated that no one’s ever asked her to do something like this. 

‘Because she literally has always had in her handbag, a SAS Survival Guide, to get herself out of all sorts. I meant to bring it actually and again, how foolishly, I completely forgot.’

Laurence has joined a star-studded lineup including Boris Becker, Shirley Ballas and Una Healy on the new Netflix series, which sees stars dropped into the jungle in Costa Rica as prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators – Bear Grylls.

As part of the show, stars learn crucial survival skills while camping in the Costa Rican jungle, desperate to avoid being caught by Bear. 

MailOnline revealed last week Laurence nearly died during the filming of the Netflix show Bear Hunt after the freak raft accident.

During filming in Costa Rica in May last year, Laurence was among celebrities taking part in a water challenge and was told to leap from a boat into the river.

Sources said that he became entangled in a bungee rope and got stuck underneath the boat. 

He was dragged underwater for several heart-stopping minutes before being pulled to safety by members of the team supervising the stunt, and lost consciousness.

Laurence, was then resuscitated on the shore by survival expert and former Chief Scout Bear Grylls, who is ‘hunting’ the celebrities in the show.

A source told MailOnline: ‘Laurence was very shaken as was everyone. He said that he thought he was a goner.

‘It was a very serious situation and at the time we thought that maybe Netflix wouldn’t show what happened because it was that bad, but now it looks as if it will be in the programme.

‘Netflix were very very apologetic about it afterwards.’

The show, which is presented by Holly Willoughby and is streaming from February 5.