Coronation Street star Alan Halsall was devastated when he had to withdraw from last year’s I’m A Celebrity due to a knee injury.
As a dedicated single dad, Alan, 42, admits he’d have stayed in the UK again if his 11-year-old daughter, Sienna, had asked him to. Recently, she finally gave him her blessing, despite her initial worries about being apart from him for so long.
Alan shared, “If Sienna had said, ‘Dad, don’t go,’ I wouldn’t have done it, to be honest. It’s only a few weeks, but for Sienna, it feels like I’m on the other side of the world—she doesn’t get to see or talk to me regularly.”
As a single parent, he’s used to it being just the two of them. He added, “I hope when I’m on screen, she’ll be able to watch with a smile and maybe laugh a bit—hopefully, I don’t embarrass her too much.”
Alan, who has portrayed Tyrone Dobbs on Coronation Street since 1998, ruptured his ACL and spent the past year recovering.
Reflecting on missing last year’s jungle experience, Alan said, “I was genuinely disappointed. My injury had to come first. There was no way I could join the show with my knee in that condition.”
However, after talking with the show’s team, he hoped for another chance, and it came sooner than he expected. “Here I am now, and I don’t feel like I missed out too much. I’m looking forward to it this year.”
Now a year post-op, Alan is doing much better. He joked, “I just wish they’d added a few inches to my legs during the surgery, but oh well.”
Though his knee isn’t perfect, producers have cleared him for all the trials, including the Celebrity Cyclone if he reaches the final.
Alan commented, “I think I could handle the Cyclone. Maybe I’d stick with the first star, just to be safe. But I’m not too concerned about most trials, and the production team is aware of my knee issues.”
