Grainne Gallanagh said she was “traumatised” for days after taking part in the Ireland’s Fittest Family Celebrity special.
The Donegal Miss Universe Ireland beauty, who boogied her way into the Dancing With The Stars finals in 2018 is swapping the glam for the gruelling fitness test tonight, alongside her brother-in-law and two cousins.
But the model and nurse, 27, admits she underestimated the challenge at hand before signing up and was in for a huge shock just 10 seconds after the klaxon sounded to start the race.
She told Irish Mirror: “I was traumatised for days after. I originally thought it was going to be more relaxed and funny, rather than serious, because it was a celebrity version.
“I was trying to convince my sisters to do it with me but I was like, ‘It’s just a bit of craic, there’ll be no fitness like the actual one, they are all obviously super fit’, and they were like, ‘Grainne I think you are underestimating this, it is going to be tougher than you think’.
“And they wouldn’t do it with me.
“So I did get my brother-in-law and my two cousins to do it with me and they were all relatively fit, and I thought I was, and then it came to it and it was so so hard.”
She and her family ended up embracing the challenge and having “great craic” along the way.
She said: “It was not just a laugh, of course it was fun, but it was competitive, it was hard and the real challenges they face on fittest families.
“And as soon as we knew what the first challenge was, I was like, ‘Oh my God, no’
“I was still like it is going to be fine, I really didn’t realise how difficult it was going to be.
“It was kind of literally about 10 seconds into the first challenge I thought, ‘Oh no, I know I’ve messed up here’.”
Whilst Grainne is no stranger to the cameras and crew around her, she said the other major challenge at hand was getting people on board in the first place.
She added: “That is another element. A lot of people didn’t want to go with me. They would love to do the challenges but not the camera element.
“So I had to convince them in that part but they were brilliant and they loved it.”
Despite failing to enlist her sisters, Grainne said after taking part, she is thankful for the team members she managed to recruit.
She added: “I think my talent was that I assembled a good team, that is what I brought to it because aside from that I was an absolute dead weight.
“They were good craic and I was so glad I asked because if it had of been me and my sisters we would have been floundering from the very start.”
Tonight, Grainne and her family are up against the Happy Pear cookery writers David and Stephen Flynn and comedians Sinead Quinlan and Neil Delamere in the hopes to bag the title in the name of charity.
In the first event, the four groups will face The Bog which will see one family eliminated.
- Watch Ireland’s Fittest Family Celebrity Special tonight at 8pm on RTE One.
