Former world champion Barry McGuigan broke down in tears as he opened up on the loss of his daughter.
Danika, McGuigan’s only daughter, passed away in July 2019 aged 33.
She had overcome leukaemia after she was diagnosed at the age of 11.
Sadly, Danika was unable to overcome a bout of bowel cancer as she died within a month of her diagnosis in 2019.
The conversation was sparked on the latest episode of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here when Northern Irish BBC Radio presenter Dean McCullough asked if McGuigan went to church.
McGuigan revealed he used to go to church ‘incessantly’ but after Danika’s passing, his visits were few and far between.
The 63-year-old then detailed his daughter’s battle with leukaemia.
“When I was making the movie ‘The Boxer’, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she had been diagnosed with leukaemia,” McGuigan said.
“They thought she wasn’t going to get better, but she did. She fought back and she won it. She had two years of chemo, but she was good.”
It was at this moment McGuigan became visibly emotional as his fellow I’m A Celeb contestants rallied around him to offer support.
McGuigan added: “I feel like such a p****, you know? Five years.”
N-Dubz star Tulisa Contostavlos led the way in consoling McGuigan.
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“Barry, you’re a man going through pain,” she said.
“And you’re vulnerable about it, and that takes strength. There’s no rules to grieving, Barry. You feel what you feel. And it’s a reflection of your life, like the extend that you’re holding onto a memory.
“That doesn’t mean that you’re weak. It means, ‘This is how much I love my daughter and I’m grieving.'”
McGuigan was immensely grateful for his fellow campmates being there for him, before adding: “Those horrible weeks in the hospital, just watching her, it was shocking.”
The former world champion later revealed to journalist Jane Moore further details about his daughter’s tragic passing.
“She had pains in her tummy but she was making the movie, she put it off and went to the doctor, called us all in,” McGuigan said.
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“Stage 4 bowel cancer, five weeks, five weeks she died.”
Danika, who was an actress, was McGuigan’s only daughter.
McGuigan has three sons, Jake, Blane and Shane.
Shane has gone on to follow in his father’s footsteps in terms of carving out a boxing career.
However, Shane swapped the gloves for a towel and bucket as he became a trainer and has worked with world champion-calibre fighters including Daniel Dubois, Josh Taylor and Chris Billam-Smith.