Matt Hancock has received a message from Gina Coladangelo on the latest episode of Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The 45-year-old former health secretary resigned in June 2021 after it emerged he had broken his own Covid-19 guidance by kissing and embracing his aide, Ms Coladangelo, in his office.
After facing gruelling challenges during the jungle phase of SAS selection in Thung Ui, north Vietnam, Mr Hancock was granted a reprieve in the form of a video call to a loved one.
He arrived in what looked like an interrogation-style room before his hood was removed.
The West Suffolk MP told Ms Coladangelo: “I’m fine, I’m thriving.”
She responded saying: “Oh, are you, my darling. Is it not tough as hell?”
Referencing the need to follow rules set down by the leaders during the training, Mr Hancock said: “You know what? Guess what my hardest thing has been? Not answering back.”
She responded saying: “So you’ll deploy this skill at home?”
Elsewhere, Mr Hancock said that “it is impossible to serve in government and not appreciate and respect the work that the special forces do” as the episode showed him crawling through mud during one task.
The programme saw the contestants pull themselves across a 300ft-wide ravine, before dropping 160 feet to an extraction point below.
Elsewhere in the episode, former Celebrity Big Brother competitor Danielle Lloyd became emotional when she received a phone call home.
Through tears, Lloyd said it was the “hardest thing” she had “ever done” in her life.
“Believe me I’ve been to hell and back,” she told her partner.
After getting comforted by Mr Hancock, Lloyd told the instructors that she was having a “difficult” time due to missing her children.
Mark “Billy” Billingham and his directing staff (DS) encouraged her to stay.
“I want to find out whether I’ve actually got the stamina to say,” she said.
“If I threw the towel in now I would be so upset with myself.
“Obviously, I just want to make my kids proud and show women can be strong.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins continues on Channel 4.