Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’m a Celeb Craig’s tragic agony
CRAIG Charles weeps as he talks about his brother dying while he was stuck in the I’m A Celeb jungle.
The former Corrie star was not on speaking terms with Dean at the time he had a blood clot in the UK in 2014, but planned to meet up at Christmas.
Craig – who gave up crack cocaine after the Mirror revealed his addiction hell – said: “We’d had a family disagreement and we’d fallen out. We’d not been speaking.
“He texted me a couple of times before I went in I’m A Celebrity saying ‘Craig, it’s Dean, just wanna chat, blah, blah, blah’.
“And I’ve kind of ignored him. I thought ‘I can’t really deal with this right now. What I’ll do is, I’ll go in the jungle, do that, come back out and we’ll all be together by Christmas’.
“And, um … that never happened.” Speaking to John Bishop for a rare TV interview on W, the 53-year-old Red Dwarf star also told how he shared a bedroom with his brother for the first 16 years of his life. Crying as he looked at an old photo of himself with Dean, he added: “We used to share our hopes and dreams and plans and our disappointments and everything.”
Dean was a policeman but his job “was not viable anymore” when he stood by Craig over false rape allegations. He then became a teacher and cycled to work on the day he died.
Craig added: “He was fit as a fiddle, cycled to work, got into the changing rooms, dropped dead. He had a blood clot.”
The star is now hosting a successful funk and soul show on BBC Radio 6 Music and has made a new series of sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf.
But in 2006, while on Coronation Street, he was pictured in the Mirror smoking crack in a car. A stint in rehab followed.
He referred to his drug use as one of the lowest points of his life, when he was struggling to cope with the death of his parents.
Craig said: “But I was dead lucky I had a wife, Jackie, who I adore and adores me. I had a reason to get better.“
John Bishop In Conversation With Craig Charles on W, tonight, 9pm.