Sam Warburton has revealed he's turned being on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! because of a fear of spiders.
The former Wales and Lions captain was approached by producers of the hit ITV show to take part in the 19th series, which is due to air next month.
The show sees celebrities having to survive in the Australian outback while submitting to Bushtucker challenges for food, often pitting them against spiders, rats and snakes.
The ex-flanker, who retired from playing last year through injury, made the revelation while speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to promote his new book, Open Side.
Warburton revealed, while playing for Wales, he had changed hotel rooms after spotting a spider.
“I’ve genuinely gone down from my hotel room in Wales games … and I saw there was this huge spider on the curtain and I don’t know where he’s gone ... I can’t go in that room," he said.
“I’m always being asked to do TV and I’ve always turned then down as I’m not really into all of that.
“I was asked to go into I’m A Celebrity this Christmas – I love that programme and it’s the one thing I watch every hour, every night."
However, the 31-year-old was quick to turn it down, saying: “I said to them, ‘I can’t do it’.
“I said to them that I physically can’t go on. I’d be great telly – I’m not being arrogant – because I come across as a normal guy.
“But there’s this pretty big rugby player who is terrified of spiders and would be screaming at stuff.
“And they were like, ‘That’s why you’d be so good’, and I was like, ‘Yeah for you, not for me.’
“I turned them down and they were like: ‘Please come to London and have the meeting.’
“So, I said I’d have the meeting but then two days before I got cold feet and thought I can’t do it, and if I do it, I’d have to have hypnotherapy.
“They said they do that and give contestants hypnotherapy.”
Warburton added: “I’m not doing it, I say this now… but next year you’ll all be voting for me and I’ll be looking back thinking, ‘I wish I had never mentioned it’.”
