My brother always said he would come back to annoy me...

Got to hand it to virus tycoon

HIT HOME: Jake’s sure it was brother Oliver who punched him

my brother to show me a sign, I was frustrated at the time. Then I had a weird experience.

“One day something hit me so hard in the ribs that it actually took my breath away. That’s something my brother would do. He’d punch me.

“I thought, ‘It must be him’. Before he died, he always said that if he could come back and annoy me then he would do it.

“So that’s why I thought it was him who punched me.”

Jake was heartbroken when younger brother Oliver died from bone cancer aged just 19 in 2012, so the visit was comforting for him.

He continued: “When it happened I went really cold and all my hair stood up. It was the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me. It was scary, but in a nice way. It made me feel good. It helped put my mind at ease to think he has gone somewhere better and that he’s at peace.

“I like to think the way he looks as a ghost isn’t the way he looked when he was poorly. He’s back to himself. Thinking of it this way helps me a little bit.”

Dancing On Ice star Jake previously lost his dad Paul to bone cancer, in 2008. He released charity single Quarantine Song in tribute to his dad and brother.

It was a thank-you to health workers for looking after the pair and raised cash for the NHS during lockdown.

Jake added: “I believe in ghosts and the afterlife. I do believe there is something out there. Our lives are too short for there not to be anything else.”

SO CLOSE: Jake with bro Oliver, right