Where original stars of The Games are now as Holly Willoughby opens new show – from Princess Diana’s ex to TV love cheat
IT was the popular noughties reality show that saw celebrities face off in athletics competitions after being coached by Olympic pros.
Now The Games is returning to our screens tonight after 16 years.
Once again 12 famous faces will be pitted against one another in track, pool and velodrome events.
This year’s contestants include TV presenter Olivia Attwood, ex-Strictly pro Kevin Clifton, The Wanted singer Max George and Corrie actor Colson Smith.
They will be taught a range of sports by famous athletes within that field, including Tyson Fury who appears tonight, before battling it out live every night this week on ITV.
It will be fronted by Holly Willoughby and Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff, with commentary from Chris Kamara and Alex Scott.
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When The Games previously aired on Channel 4 back in 2003, it brought high-energy entertainment that left many of us on the edge of our seats.
But some of its former contestants have led equally exhilarating lives away from the cameras.
Here we look back at the stars of the original four series of The Games to find out what happened next.
Near-fatal heart attack
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Former British Army recruit James Hewitt, now 63, was already was a famous face by the time he appeared on the debut series in 2006.
It followed him admitting to having a five-year affair with Princess Diana in the mid-Nineties.
Hewitt has been accused of attempting to sell private letters between him and Diana, but no sale has ever been revealed.
A year after being a runner-up on The Games in 2003, he was arrested for possessing cocaine in Fulham, alongside a CNN reporter.
He was given a warning by police and later stripped of his firearms licence because of his “intemperate habits”.
In 2006 James appeared on a celebrity spin-off of the X Factor as part of a duo with Dutch glamour model Rebecca Loos.
In 2017 James reportedly suffered a near-fatal heart attack and a stroke.
Last year it emerged he is reportedly working as a gardener at his mum's block of flats earning £4,000 a year.
Cancer tragedy
Bernie Nolan, who used to perform with her sisters in The Nolans, finished last during her appearance on the fourth series of The Games in 2006.
It followed heartache during the Nineties while dating comedian Bradley Walsh - who cheated on her multiple times during their three-year relationship.
Bernie broke things off after three years, claiming she was sick of being “made to like look a fool” multiple times when she forgave him.
In 2010, Bernie beat breast cancer after having chemotherapy and a mastectomy - but two years later, it returned and spread to her brain, lungs, liver and bones.
She died in her sleep aged 52 in 2013.
Feared he'd never walk again
Two years after Steps broke up, former member Lee Latchford-Evans appeared on The Games in 2003 and won a bronze medal.
When the band reunited in 2011, the performer’s life was nearly changed forever when started experiencing back pain.
One morning Lee woke up unable to move and had shooting pains in his leg. He needed surgery to have the disc at the base of his spine shaved because it was pressing on a nerve.
He claimed it was the “dance moves in Steps” that damaged his back “for good” and during a lengthy recovery process, the performer struggled to stand without collapsing.
Lee, who had to use a wheelchair for months, told You magazine: “It was an awful moment because I thought I might never walk again.”
Fetish dungeon wedding before celibacy
Two years after glamour model Jodie Marsh participated in The Games in 2004, she shocked the nation by unveiling her unusual marriage plans.
Jodie, now 43, got her partner David Doyle’s name tattooed on her hand instead of an engagement ring after being with him for just 11 days.
They planned to get married in a fetish ceremony inside a dungeon, but their relationship ended in 2007 after she claimed he was unfaithful.
Jodie went on to date a female hairdresser as well as former TOWIE star Kirk Norcross, and shared intimate photos of them on Twitter before they split.
In 2015, having got heavily into bodybuilding, she married her personal trainer James Placido, claiming she was celibate for the five years before they met. They split a year later.
Alopecia battle
Former TV presenter Gail Porter, 51, was still recovering from a viral photo stunt when she appeared on The Games in 2003, and had to pull out due to injury.
Four years earlier a nude photograph of her was projected onto the Houses of Parliament as part of a marketing campaign for FHM.
In Gail’s autobiography, she claimed to have been unaware of the stunt until it a day after it happened and it left her so distraught that she was unable to leave her bed for weeks.
By 2005 she'd developed alopecia totalis, which led to her losing all of her hair.
During a “very frail” time, she was involuntarily sectioned to a psychiatric ward after sending suicidal texts to her boyfriend, but emerged stronger 17 days later.
Since then she’s been on Celebrity Big Brother, The Wright Stuff, The Gadget Show and has been an ambassador for multiple charities.
TV show fury
Comedian Bobby Davro, 63, had high hopes when appearing in The Games back in 2003 because his father, Bill Nankeville, was a Olympic runner.
Unfortunately, athletic success clearly doesn't run in the family, as he didn't win any medals.
Four years later, Bobby joined EastEnders for a year. In 2011, Bobby complained that TV bosses were writing him off as an "old-fashioned act" while moaning about being unable to get any work.
He also claimed Dancing On Ice, which he competed on in 2010, “missed a great opportunity” by booting him off so quickly.
Bobby told Birmingham Live: “The character wasn’t very good, they didn’t give me proper storylines and I couldn’t get my teeth into it.”
In 2015, Bobby was accused of bedding a wheelchair-bound friend's wife in the kitchen while he was ill in bed.
TV magician Wayne Dobson, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, said the comedian betrayed their 30-year-friendship, reports the . A rep for Bobby denied the affair.
Bobby has three children with wife Trudi Jameson, but the pair separated amicably.
Eating disorder
Melanie Chisholm, known as Mel C, put her Sporty Spice nickname to the test when she appeared on the first series of The Games - but she too finished medal-less.
As well as a solo career as a singer, Mel, now 48, has done stints on reality TV including Dancing With The Stars, and as a judge on Asia’s Got Talent, The X Factor Australia and The Voice Kids.
In 2007 the singer spoke out about her battles with clinical depression and an eating disorder, which led her to work out in the gym three hours every day.
Mel claimed to have “felt bullied” by fellow bandmates in the Spice Girls - and in an eyebrow-raising interview with Cat Deeley on CD:UK Live in 2003, she suggested Geri Halliwell is "talentless".
Mel has been dating her manager Joe Marshall since 2015 and has an 11-year-old daughter with ex-husband Thomas Starr.
Skin cancer battle
Hollyoaks star Terri Dwyer, who played Ruth Osborne in the soap, was the joint winner for the ladies in The Games’ first series.
In 2004 mum-of-two Terri nearly missed her wedding to Sean Marley, because she got stuck in traffic.
A decade later in 2014, she was diagnosed with skin cancer and blamed it on using sunbeds excessively during her teenage years.
Both her parents died of cancer, and she had multiple moles removed - including one, which was cancerous.
Terri, now 48, also struggled after contracting coronavirus in 2020 and thanked fans for their support, before she adding: “It’s brutal, I’m not gonna lie.”
Tsunami tragedy & fling guilt refusal
Gardening expert Charlie Dimmock went on The Games the same year that both of her parents drowned during a tsunami, when they were on holiday in Thailand in 2004.
One year later her most popular show, Ground Force, came to an end after the BBC branded it “a dead horse”.
Charlie’s since presented programmes about river walks and was poached by the US TV network CBS to host a gardening section.
She defended having an affair with Ground Force microphone operator Andy Simmons, which was her split from partner John Mushet after 13 years.
At the time, Charlie, 55, told the Daily Mail: “I don't regret what happened… I’ve discovered that the most difficult after-effect of the break-up is getting into another relationship.”
In 2016 she told the Independent that she was “way past marriage” and would be unwilling to share her home or time with someone else.
Horror Covid battle
Ex-glamour model Linda Lusardi, now 63, rose to fame as a Page 3 girl for The Sun before branching out into TV work.
She appeared on The Games in 2004 but didn’t win any of the sports during her stint alongside celebrities including Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and model Lady Isabella Harvey.
Linda then had TV roles in The Bill, Hollyoaks, Brookside and Emmerdale as well as featuring in reality shows Dancing On Ice, Celebrity Masterchef and Celebrity Come Dine With Me.
In 2020, the mum-of-two and her husband Sam Kane had to be hospitalised after contracting coronavirus, but thankfully both recovered.
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Prior to their admission, Linda claimed she they had “never felt this ill, EVER!” and added: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
The Games airs at 9pm every weekday this week on ITV.