After everything Ross Kemp has survived, it’s Celebrity Traitors that finally broke him

Ross Kemp’s hard-man reputation followed him into The Celebrity Traitors, but after a few weeks on TV, I think it’s reasonable to say that the experience has done what gangs and Afghanistan couldn’t do: Break him. 

From the first episode, it was clear Ross Kemp would give us viral moment after viral moment. The first piece of evidence came during the first mission, when Bella Ramsey placed a captain’s hat on his head, leading the former EastEnders actor to accuse them of murder. Later in that episode, a chilly Leigh-Anne Pinnock made the same mistake when she rubbed her hands on his arms for warmth. Again, it sparked an attempted murder accusation. 

By last week’s episode, when Traitor Hannah Fry was exposed and banished, Ross Kemp’s rampant paranoia spiralled into what could only be described as rowdy bulldog energy. It genuinely looked like he was about to fight Hannah. 

The intensity of The Traitors is nothing new, and we’ve seen countless fights over the years; I just thought Ross Kemp would be more than equipped for it after these insane situations. 

I was wrong. 

Ross Kemp was shot at by the Taliban in Afghanistan

Credit: Sky

Though he made his start in the acting field, playing Grant Mitchell in EastEnders for years, Ross Kemp has been making documentaries for years now. 

As the name suggests, Ross Kemp in Afghanistan saw the documentary maker fly into the heart of conflict in Afghanistan. He was shot at by the Taliban, walked through blistering heat in the desert, and waded into heated political discussions with the locals. 

“Bullets fizzed inches from our heads, hitting the ground on either side of us. It was the most frightening experience of my life. I’ve never hugged the ground as tightly as I did when that happened. It’s definitely the closest I have ever come to dying. I was so scared,” he recalled. 

He challenged a heavily armed gunman 

Credit: Sky

In 2014, Ross Kemp went to Papua New Guinea for the filming of Ross Kemp: Extreme World. There, he went in search of The General, the leader of a particularly violent group of robbers. 

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When walking through the jungle with his film crew, Ross was ambushed by three gunmen carrying assault rifles. They literally held him at gunpoint, but Ross swatted the rifle away. 

“Are you gonna kill me? No one’s gonna f***ing kill me!” he shouted at them. 

Though the gunmen eventually relented, Ross later admitted that it was a gamble; he didn’t know if they were testing him or whether they actually intended to shoot him. 

Neo-Nazis literally set him on fire

Credit: Sky

During the Moscow episode of Ross Kemp on Gangs, the actor enlisted with Neo-Nazi skinheads to expose the increase in racist attacks in Russia. 

During training exercises, he was legit set on fire. 

Celebrity Traitors’ Ross Kemp went to a prison run by criminals 

Credit: BBC

During season two of Ross Kemp: Extreme World, the Celebrity Traitors star went to Penitenciaría General de Venezuela, a prison run by its own prisoners. With zero oversight from officials, the prison was filled with drugs and instances of murder and rape. 

Ross Kemp did all that and way more, but Celebrity Traitors has seen him lose his cool numerous times. I think it speaks to the intensity of what many of us think of as a game. 

For all the latest news and drops about The Celebrity Traitors, like The Holy Church of The Traitors on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: BBC/Twitter