I’m A Celeb’s Dean McCullough opens up about his battles with alcohol and homelessness

The new series of I’m A Celebrity has begun and fans think it’s going to be one of the best yet thanks to the brilliant cast. 

From N-Dubz’s Tulisa to Coleen Rooney and GK Barry, there is entertainment coming from all angles, but one person no one knew much about is Dean McCullough.

The Radio 1 DJ seems like he’s going to be the life of the camp with his vibrancy and energy, but he has struggled with alcoholism and homelessness in the past. 

Dean McCullough battled with alcohol during the pandemic

Speaking to i News in 2022, the 32-year-old revealed that he battled with alcohol during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It wasn’t until it got really bad that I realised,” he said. “What was like a glass of wine of an evening after work turned into a bottle which turned into two bottles and then, some weekends, I was drinking like a bottle of vodka too.”

“It wasn’t until I was going to work on a Monday and I was looking at the bins and I was like, ‘I didn’t drink all that?’”

He struggled a lot with his mental health during that time and was thinking some “really, really dark thoughts”. However, he knew he had to make some changes to achieve his dream of hosting a Radio 1 show.

“I just saw the path in front of me and it wasn’t nice. It was really dark and it was very destructive and I thought, if I want to get to Radio 1, which was always my dream, if I want to do that, I need to make some changes.”

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So, he decided to stop drinking for a month on the first day of September and before he knew it, he’d been sober for two years.

“It has been the best two years of my life,” Dean shared at the time. “My life has never been better.”

He also knows the struggles of homelessness firsthand

In another interview with Big Issue, Dean shared that he struggled with homelessness as a child in Newtownabbey after his parents split up.

He never considered himself homeless at the time as he wasn’t sleeping rough, but he was constantly couch-surfing, which still has an impact on him today.

“I have problems with my possessions and feeling like I need to take care of absolutely everything around me,” he said. “That comes down to moving from house to house and not ever feeling like anything was ever truly mine.”

The DJ also spent a lot of time sleeping on sofas when he moved to London as an adult to try and pursue a career in musical theatre.

“As soon as I sensed any kind of danger, I’d be straight out of [where I was staying]… for a long time I had no fixed address,” Dean revealed. “I would go out on the Thursday and just stay out all weekend because I just didn’t want to go home.”

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Featured image by: Dean McCullough/Instagram