Jennifer Ellison: Celebrity SAS show is the ‘best therapy ever’

Jennifer Ellison says ‘Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins’ is the “best therapy ever”.

The 39-year-old actress was embroiled in a tumultuous relationship in 1999 aged 16 years old with a gangster lover who she alleges subjected her to a catalogue of abuse, including smashing glass bottles over her head and breaking her collar bone.

After years of domestic abuse, the former ‘Brookside’ star plucked up the courage to leave and has since married Rob Tickle, who she wed in 2009 in a secret ceremony in Mauritius while six months pregnant.

Since appearing on Channel 4’s fourth series of 'Celebrity SAS', the married mum of three – who has sons Bobby, 12, Harry, seven, and Charlie six with Rob – broke down in tears as it opened up a lot of old wounds.

Jennifer revealed her traumatic past to former Commando Jason “Foxy” Fox in Sunday night’s (11.09.22) episode.

She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “You get broken down that much so when someone says, ‘Right, tell me about you’, it literally just takes over your whole body and just comes out.

“It’s almost like you go back to that place and you need to get it off your chest. It’s crazy, honestly.

“Foxy’s like, ‘Listen, you need to believe in yourself more, don’t let the past define you’. He spoke to me and he’s so strong. I was just in awe.

“It was a volatile relationship and he was connected with this other world, this gangland world.

“For years and years I thought that life was normal and bad things like that happened to everyone because it happened in the world I was in. I was having nails in my letter box, going into hiding and fearing for your life walking down the street. That’s not normal.

Jennifer admits she just "buried" her pain at the time, but now realises what went on was "so horrific".

She added: “It’s just been one of those things that I kind of buried, just kind of got on with life and got on with everything."

“I look back and think how it was so traumatic. It was so horrific what I was going through. I was such a young girl, I was a baby.

“I feel like opening up in the mirror room about that has put that part of my life to bed. It was like the best therapy session ever.”