Seann Walsh: My ‘career was dead’ after controversial Strictly kiss

Seann Walsh has described the time after he was pictured kissing his Strictly Come Dancing co-star Katya Jones as “easily the most depressing month of my entire life”.

The comedian, 36, was on the front of national newspapers in October 2018 when he was pictured kissing Jones, while he was in a relationship with actress Rebecca Humphries.

At the time Katya Jones was married to Neil Jones, also a Strictly dancer.

Walsh detailed the effects the drama had on his professional life to fellow comedian Babatunde Aleshe while in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! camp.

He said: “Easily the most depressing month of my entire life, Edinburgh after Strictly. We get to Edinburgh, right, I think it’s a 200-seater, I’ve never not in Edinburgh sold out the first night.

“It doesn’t even occur to me that it’s not sold out. Just before I’m about to go on, my agent comes in and goes, ‘Just so you know, there’s like 30 people’.

“To get told that when you’re just about to go on, horrific. It was at that point I was like, ‘Oh, oh’”

Aleshe said: “‘Oh, they don’t like me.’”

Walsh replied: “My career was dead, I was over. My agent said, ‘There’s nothing I can do. I’m sorry, I’ve tried. I’ve tried everything.’”

The comedian said that it was at this point he realised he needed to “learn to drive” as he could not sit on trains because he had to “hide”.

During their conversation, Aleshe also confided in Walsh.

Speaking of his own career, he said: “I stopped because I had a mental block. I can’t come up with new stuff. I just can’t come up with new jokes, it’s just not happening for me. I lost the love.

“I made the smart choice, left acting and I was just working, normal nine to five. Then a month later, everything changed. Everything.

“Mo (Gilligan) invited me to do a podcast with him and then he was like, ‘Oh, do you want to come on tour with me?’ and then from there it just went crazy.

“From an office job to 10 nights at the Apollo to the 02 arena, to here. To the jungle. I’m so grateful for this opportunity.”

Later in the camp, talk turned to the best and worst days at work, with Walsh confessing that he was sacked from working at TK Maxx because he fell asleep under the coats.

He said: “The shop had closed, everyone was tidying and I was meant to be doing the coats, but the coats were on the floor.

“I was so tired I crawled under the rest of the coats and just snuggled up. Then the boss came down and said, ‘Right, we need to have a word.’”

Walsh added that the best day of his career came during his first London Apollo gig.

He told his campmates: “All the legends have done it. It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever had in my life. It can’t really be topped.

“I was on a bus hungover and got the call saying I was doing the Apollo. I yelled out, ‘I’m doing the Apollo,’ It’s London, no-one even turned around.”

Actor Owen Warner revealed he found out that he had been cast in Hollyoaks while making himself a 60p student meal at University.

While broadcaster Chris Moyles said a bad day in the office came when Sir Elton John “dropped the F-bomb” 10 seconds into his live radio show.

I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! continues at 9pm on ITV1.