Lisa Riley admits she reached her lowest moment in the jungle, seeking strength from her late mum as she felt “alone” and “vulnerable” before breaking down in private.
Lisa Riley has revealed that the memory of her beloved late mum helped her through her darkest moment in the jungle. The usually upbeat Emmerdale star admitted she felt “alone” and “vulnerable” at one point as she struggled with life in camp.
At her lowest, the 49-year-old walked to the creek — the spot “farthest away” from everyone — to be by herself. “I sat there on my own and had a little chat with my mum,” she said. “I called on all my angels above, but especially her. I just said, ‘Mum, I need strength. I need to get through this. I’m struggling and finding it really hard.’”
Lisa was incredibly close to her mum Cath, who sadly died from cancer in 2012 at the age of 57. The actress said the moment came after she took part in the fish-gut trial, which she described as the “toughest time” she faced in the jungle.
When asked to describe her emotions, she said: “Alone, vulnerable… the challenge really drains you, and you feel this pressure that you have to do well, that you have to provide.”
She admitted that the pressure of everyone performing strongly in the trials started to weigh on her. “We were pulling in huge numbers — nobody got fewer than six stars. And I’d done really well, too. I got a massive number. But then you get back to camp and you’ve no idea what day or time it is, and you just crave that little bit of reassurance from home saying, ‘You know what, Lisa, you’re doing absolutely b***** brilliant.’”
She explained that her lowest point came when she returned to camp after the trial. “We’d rushed out that morning so fast that I hadn’t packed any clean clothes,” she said. “I had nothing. Everything I owned was soaked. I smelled like a wet fish market ten times over and was covered in green gunk in the heat. I sat on the bottom step of the Telegraph completely alone. I just needed some time out.”
She explained that her close friend Ruby Wax was the first to spot that something was wrong. “Ruby just said, ‘baby’s lost her smile,’ and for her to notice that… well, there really was no smile left in me. I thought, ‘This is so hard. This is really, really hard.’ So I took myself down to the very end of the creek where they collect the wood. I just thought, ‘I stink. There is no plan B.’”
The actress said her campmates supported her through the tough moment. “In the hardest times, I’m usually the one lifting everyone else up. But Martin was there, Jack was there, Ruby… and the boys, honestly. I’m old enough to be their mum, but I’ve been like a sister or mother figure to them. That day, they were so instinctive. You could see it around camp — everyone was like, ‘Lisa’s low.’ My balloon had burst.”
Thankfully, Lisa managed to bounce back, and she said the whole experience ended up being “everything I wanted and so much more.” Not only did she enjoy it even more than Strictly, but she also lost 20lbs in camp through “portion control” and exercise.
“When you’re in there, people don’t realise what the lifestyle is actually like or how the camp is set up,” she explains. “It’s all about whether you can keep going — the constant activity. Even walking up to the Telegraph is step after step. And when you head to a trial, you’re moving nonstop. It’s endless. It’s not just sitting around the campfire having a laugh.”
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