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I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant Dean McCullough has revealed he turned to “drink and drugs” after feeling “very lonely” while he was homeless.
The Northern Irish star became a divisive figure during his time on I’m a Celebrity, taking part in seven tasks and clashing with host Ant McPartlin and disagreeing with campmates over chores.
The 32-year-old has now opened up about his brief stint in his life when he was homeless and fell into a cycle of using drink and drugs.
Calling the experience “hidden homelessness” the radio presenter admitted to “being a bit wild, a bit free” when speaking to Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (18 Decemeber).
“Later on in life when I started working with Centrepoint (homelessness charity), they didn’t know about my homeless story, to be honest with you, I didn’t really understand the experience that I’d had until we started working together,” he said.
“And then I shared with them as well that whenever I was living in London, between performing contracts and other bits and bobs, I didn’t have a fixed address.
“And for quite a lot of my time living in London, I was moving from house to house, and some of those houses that I lived in were quite volatile. Housemates of mine were using drugs and alcohol, and I got caught up in that world as well.”
He continued: “And sometimes I’d go out on a Thursday and stay out all weekend, going from party to party, friend’s house to friend’s house, just so that I wouldn’t be living in that volatile environment, and that kept happening, and I didn’t realise.
“I just thought I was having a good time, I thought I was being a bit wild, a bit free, but actually I didn’t have a fixed address. I didn’t have keys to anywhere, I was just waiting for my housemates to come home and then I would be able to come back home and maybe have something to eat, so I didn’t realise that was homelessness.”
He added “At the time I felt lost and I felt very lonely, but I used drink and drugs, unfortunately, to feel some sort of a connection.”
The 32-year-old, who works as a young person’s prevention ambassador for Centrepoint, was appearing on the show with The Big Issue founder Lord Bird, after the Government announced almost £1 billion worth of funding to tackle and prevent homelessness.
Homelessness, which includes people living in temporary accommodation, is currently at record levels, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Lord Bird said the increase in homelessness was being caused by the expense of living, and said a “new tranche” of people were being forced on to the streets having had the “bad luck” of losing a job or being evicted, rather than having “inherited poverty” as he said most had when he started The Big Issue.
Speaking about the funding, McCullough added: “I think that the money is great, and I hope it’s spent well, but I would really like the stigma of homelessness to be talked about.
“I think that we need to open the conversation and allow young people to speak to people that they trust, whether that be a teacher or another family member outside their immediate family home, and share the worries that they may have.
He added: “I think that people watching today might just think, ‘okay, well, they’re going to spend this money on outreach and get more people out onto the streets, working with these homeless folk’, but I think that by that stage, we’ve already hit a crisis.
“I think that we should be trying to prevent this far, far, far sooner, and I think that starts with the conversations that we’re having today.”
McCullough, who was the second campmate to be eliminated on I’m A Celebrity, said that when he finally got a home of his own, he “kissed every single piece of wall and every door handle”.
Additional reporting by PA.
