Singer Lucy Spraggan has said she “clashed heads a bit” with boxer Conor Benn during her time on Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The 32-year-old singer, who made her name on ITV singing show The X-Factor, will appear in the military reality show’s latest series when it airs on Sunday at 9pm – having watched it “avidly” and written about it in her diary when she was younger.
Spraggan said she ended up befriending Benn, and became so close during her time on the show with drag artist Bimini Bon Boulash, former Love Island star Adam Collard and Michaella McCollum, from Northern Ireland, who was jailed for smuggling cocaine in Peru with Melissa Reid in 2013, that she invited them to her wedding.
The singer, who is best known for her songs Last Night (Beer Fear), Lighthouse and Tea And Toast, said: “To be honest, it was mainly Michaella, Bimini, Troy, Adam (that she got on with best) but I also got on with Conor too, although we did clash heads a bit.
“It was only to do with him not really liking direction and I was picked to direct one of the tasks.
“I thought Adam was such a great guy. As a woman, when a man really makes you feel comfortable around them, he was that for me the whole time. Adam, Bimini and Michaella came to my wedding after the show.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins sees celebrities enter SAS training, where they are not eliminated and are instead culled by the directing staff or able to withdraw themselves, with those who remain at the end declared the winners.
Fellow contestant Chloe Burrows, best known for finishing second on Love Island series seven in 2021, described her time on the show as “hell on earth”, and added that she “wasn’t in great nick going in”.
The 29-year-old said: “It lived up to my expectations, but in my wildest dreams, it was much more intense, much more straining.
“It was so much more intense than I thought it could be, but because of all the stuff you don’t see on camera, if that makes sense.
“I would actually love the opportunity to give it another go. I know Pete Wicks has given it another shot. If I did I would say to my management I need a month off and I’m going to train, get SAS ready beforehand.”
Benn, who is the son of former boxer Nigel Benn, said he was inspired by his father’s time in the military to join the programme, and added that the only thing that would have scared him on the show was spiders.
He said: “It definitely lived up to my expectations. It was very real. It was brutal, intense, can be mind-breaking.
“But in a weird way, if you sort of ride the storm, you find yourself and find out what you’re about, who you are. I find out who I am when I’m in the ring with another man.
“Whereas for the other celebrities, who don’t have to go to that place to really find out what minerals they’re made of, this is the perfect test. They can find out if they’re strong and put their resilience to the test.”
The rest of the recruits will be made up of former footballers Adebayo Akinfenwa and Troy Deeney, TV dancer Louie Spence, Strictly Come Dancing 2025 runner-up Tasha Ghouri, former The Traitors winner Harry Clark, singer Hannah Spearritt, model Rebecca Loos, and rapper Lady Leshurr.
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday, and will continue on Sundays and Mondays throughout August.
