Celebrity SAS contestant Lucy Spraggan has recently made headlines after suffering one of the most painful injuries in TV history.
Sharing details of the grisly injury, she described how she ‘tore’ her vulva while filming the reality TV competition.
‘I ripped my labia – it was bad,’ she told The Sun. ‘That’s not a common injury. Actually, genuinely, that’s never been the same, so much so I’m having some surgery soon to correct it.’
She went on to say how she didn’t really know what had happened to cause the tear, guessing only that the harness she had been wearing ‘was tight’.
Lucy’s injury may have been one of the worst suffered by a reality TV contestant, but she’s far from the only one to have been gravely injured in the name of entertainment.
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Here’s our run-down of the most painful injuries in all of reality television.
Dancing On Ice
As you might expect from a show which has celebrities speeding around an ice rink with sharp blades attached to their feet, Dancing on Ice has had no shortage of casualties over the years.
The most serious of these was perhaps Olympian Greg Rutherford, who suffered a grisly injury when he fell and landed on his own ice skate.
During the long and painful recovery period, Greg likened the injury to ‘having a C-section.’
In 2021, Denise van Outen was forced to pull out after an accident left her with three bone fractures and a partial dislocation.
Talking about the incident on Instagram afterwards, Denise described the pain as ‘unbearable.’
Greg and Denise join the likes of Jennifer Ellison (who kicked herself in the head with her own skate), Josh Jones (injured during rehearsals) and Keith Chegwin, who suffered cracked ribs on the first day of the competition.
Survival of the Fittest
In 2018, Love Island star Dani Dyer was forced to drop out of the South Africa-set ITV2 series after only one day.
The injury occurred as Dani went headfirst down a waterslide, dislocating her shoulder on the way down.
A source said: ‘Dani knew straight away she had done serious damage but tried to continue as she didn’t want to seem like a wuss. It was too much, though, and she was taken to the hospital.’
The Jump
Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle’s injuries sustained while filming ski competition The Jump are considered by many to be the worstto ever happen on a reality TV show.
Beth was airlifted to hospital during rehearsals for the Channel 4 show, which took place at the show’s ski jump set in Austria in 2016.
According to Beth’s lawyer, she sustained serious injuries, which included two fractured vertebrae, and required surgery on her spinal cord.
In 2019, it was reported that Beth was suing the show’s makers for £200,000 in damages. She claimed that she has never fully recovered from the incident, saying at the time: ‘It’s been a long journey and my recovery is still ongoing. I’m not sure I’ll ever be 100% again.’
A statement by production company TwoFour said: ‘This matter is being dealt with by our insurers and we are unable to comment as the claim is ongoing.’
Beth was one of many celebrities who sustained serious injuries on the show, including Tina Hobley (broken arm), Mark-Francis Vandelli (fractured his ankle), Rebecca Adlington (dislocated shoulder) and Sarah Harding (injured knee).
Following these high-profile celebrity injuries, The Jump was put on indefinite hiatus in 2018.
Splash!
After injuring his leg during training for the ITV diving competition Splash! Crimewatch presenter Rav Wilding was rushed to hospital with a blood clot on a lung on New Year’s Eve.
Not only did Rav’s injury spoil his Christmas, but he also struggled to find work afterwards, and was forced to cancel his wedding to fiancée Jill Morgan.
‘It breaks my heart that Jill and I had to cancel our wedding,’ he told The Guardian at the time.
Celebrity SAS
When former MP Louise Mensch took part in the Channel 4 series in 2019, she was forced to drop out after ripping a muscle.
‘After I quit, which I had to, I was completely injured, I wasn’t going to let the team take punishment for me,’ she told Metro.co.uk.
‘Every step was painful and they had me checked out at hospital and I had a three and a half centimetre rip in the back of my muscle, so literally every step was painful.’
Not quite as grisly as a torn vulva, but still pretty painful.
Strictly Come Dancing
Former EastEnders star Nigel Harman had been one of the favourites to win Strictly in 2023.
While his fortunes ultimately varied on the show, his journey came to an end when he broke a rib while training for the quarter-finals.
He explained: ‘I was leaping off a rostrum, and was about to be caught by some very handsome men, and as I flew, I was Peter Pan, and as I landed, I was in A&E.
‘It’s quite painful. This hasn’t really sunk in. I’ve been avoiding Katya all day because that makes it really real as well.”
I’m A Celebrity
It’s not just the contestants who need to watch out; sometimes, the hosts find themselves in harm’s way.
While rehearsing for I’m A Celebrity spin-off Extra Camp in 2018, host Joel Dommett suffered a gnarly injury when he was struck on the head with a sign.
He was subsequently rushed to hospital, where he was given seven stitches and the day off to recover.
Before that, in 2005, former Neighbours star Kimberley Davies fractured a rib after jumping 15ft from a helicopter in a Bushucker trial.
Kimberley returned to camp but quit mere hours later, after being unable to cope with the immense pain.
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