Former I’m A Celebrity star Martin Roberts has revealed he ignored doctor’s orders after being hours away from death.
The Homes Under The Hammer presenter, 61, was rushed to hospital for life-saving heart surgery in 2022 after experiencing chest pains.
He kept his followers updated at the time, explaining that he’d had ‘a massive amount of fluid all around my heart’, which had stopped it from working.
He’d been told by doctors that without the emergency operation, he would have only had hours to live.
But despite the near-death experience, Martin isn’t playing it safe these days.
Speaking to Metro on behalf of 10bet, the TV star revealed: ‘It was a bit of an eye-opener to be honest, being three hours from death, that’s always going to ruin your day.
‘I was told to slow down and really take things easy… so I bought a pub which needed complete renovating and which I’ve got try and run, having no experience of running a pub, restaurant or a hotel.’
He went on: ‘It suddenly makes you realise how fragile we all are in lots of ways.
‘If I said your life is going to end in a year’s time, would you slow down or would you speed up and try and do all the things that you want to do.’
Martin is now focusing his time on giving back with more charity work and rebuilding the pub for the community.
‘It’s lost its heart, and it’s involving young kids, giving them a chance to get involved in the construction industry, and moving forward, kids are going to come in and run it and all that kind of thing.
‘It’s almost like I am absolutely focused on this as a thing, because I don’t know how much longer I’ve got now.
‘Maybe that heart thing was a call to action.
‘I’m definitely not following all the advice in terms of making myself last longer, but I’d probably rather have a few years as a lion than many as a lamb.’
The star also has no plans on stepping back from Homes Under The Hammer, which has become a staple of British TV since it first aired in 2003.
‘I’m very privileged and honoured to have been part of it since the start, since episode one,’ he said, reflecting on how so many of his fans have ‘grown up’ with the show.
When asked the secret to its longevity, he told us: ‘It’s genuine, there’s not a single bit of Homes Under The Hammer that’s fake, every single bit of it is true.
‘I think people are a lot less stupid than sometimes people who put programmes on television think because, you can see it’s real. You can see that the buyers are real. You can see the auction is real. You can see that what they do when they do up the property is real.
‘It’s got it’s got jeopardy, it’s got an element of, “I could do that”. So, you can watch it as somebody passively, who just thinks that’s good entertainment. Or you can say, actually, “You know what? Maybe we can have a go at that. Maybe we could do it, because they look a bit like me and you, those people there who’ve just bought that house in Stoke-on-Trent for £75,000, spent a month doing it up and just sold it for £102,000.”‘
He added: ‘I’d like to think that I’m part of it’s longevity, because I do know I’m talking about, I try to bring genuine advice and information to people, and we’ve got the rest of the wonderful presenters who just bring so much to the show as well.
‘It’s feel good television with a heart and a purpose. You can watch it and get something out of it. You can take away something or you can watch it and think, “There’s absolutely no way they are going to renovate that house for £500”.’
Over his decades-long career, Martin has appeared on the likes of gameshows Hole in the Wall and Pointless, and in 2016 was a campmate in a particularly turbulent year of I’m A Celebrity.
Martin came in sixth place, lasting 15 days in the jungle, and faced clashes with the likes of Larry Lamb and Danny Baker.
Comparing his time in the jungle to this year’s series, which sees Coleen Rooney, Strictly star Oti Mabuse and McFly’s Danny Jones taking part, Martin said: ‘This is a really nice group of people, we had a really nice group of people, and there’s been series’ when I probably thought I would not have wanted to spend three weeks with some of those people, they would have driven me mad and I think it would have got really nasty, because I generally speak my mind.
‘We had a few ups and downs in my year, but we worked through it and it all turned out alright in the end.
‘And then this group, I would happily parachute into that and spend three weeks with this group people. There’s nobody in there who’s obnoxious, there’s nobody in there who’s annoying.
‘So I think in a world of of chaos and uncertainty and upset, I think the bookers did the right job in putting together a team, a group who actually would just make fun, entertaining television, and not a painful watch.’
Martin Roberts was speaking to Metro on behalf of 10bet.
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