One of this year's I'm A Celebrity contestants, Dean McCullough, brings with him a poignant history of hidden homelessness and difficult times before his rise to fame.
Dean, who is now a familiar voice on BBC Radio 1, is gearing up for the jungle experience alongside celebrities like Coleen Rooney and Oti Mabuse.
Despite his current high-profile position presenting on Radio 1 and appearing on shows such as Big Brother: Late and Live, Dean's journey wasn't always smooth.
He recently revealed his past struggles with hidden homelessness, which is where individuals find themselves without permanent accommodation or have to resort to staying at friends' places. Speaking to The Big Issue earlier this year, he disclosed how he once didn't acknowledge being homeless because he wasn't out on the streets.
Yet, he has come to realise the significant mental toll that such precarious living conditions can inflict on the youth enduring the same, reports OK!. In his own words: "We weren't living on the street, we were living on my aunt's house on a sofa. I was moving between houses on a regular basis."
Dean opened up about his turbulent past, detailing how after his parents' breakup he and his family lacked a permanent home for a year. He also recounted years of sofa surfing upon his move to London to chase his dreams of pursuing musical theatre.
"I have problems with my possessions and feeling like I need to take care of absolutely everything around me. That comes down to moving from house to house and not ever feeling like anything was ever truly mine," he shared.
"As soon as I sensed any kind of danger, I'd be straight out of [where I was staying]... for a long time I had no fixed address. I would go out on the Thursday and just stay out all weekend because I just didn't want to go home."
But it's not only homelessness that Dean has candidly discussed; he's also been frank about his 'dark days' and his battle with alcohol. In a heartfelt admission on Scott Thomas's podcast Learning As I Go, Dean disclosed: "Alcoholism runs in my family and I've got a lot of friends that have been alcohol dependent so I just thought it was my turn."
He went on to say: "I looked at my bins in my apartment and it was like, three bottles of red, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of prosecco, I was like 'who drank that? ' Oh it was me."
Now living sober, Dean confided that his sobriety journey began during some hard times throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns, recognising that his drinking had become problematic while he was presenting the breakfast show on Gaydio.
Opening up to iNews, he revealed: "It was the pandemic, and I just got myself into a bad way and I was sort of thinking some really, really dark thoughts to myself. Anybody who's kind of struggled with mental health will know what it's like."
He added: "I just saw the path in front of me and it wasn't nice. It was really dark and it was very destructive and I thought, if I want to get to Radio 1, which was always my dream, if I want to do that, I need to make some changes."
I'm A Celebrity Get Out Of Here returns on Sunday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX
