How Barry McGuigan's life was forever changed by his daughter's death
I'm a Celebrity's Barry McGuigan may be best known for boxing but his family have always been the most important thing to him.
Barry McGuigan is back on our screens with I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.
He may be best known for his impressive boxing career but family has always been the most important thing to McGuigan.
It's clear the boxing legend is still grieving his daughter's death, five years on. The 63-year-old has previously admitted his life would never been the same after his daughter Danika died aged 33 in 2019.
McGuigan was in tears talking about his daughter's death on Tuesday's I'm a Celebrity. Watch the incredibly moving moment in the video below.
Barry McGuigan's daughter Danika died after bowel cancer
He told his fellow campmates: "I've tried to talk about it... Those horrible weeks in the hospital, just watching her. It was shocking."
Danika — affectionately known to her family as Nika — died soon after being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer. The sports star previously said he would "never recover" from his daughter's death.
According to The Belfast Telegraph, he said on The Tommy Tiernan Show in 2021: "I lost my daughter two years ago and it’s been shocking. I'll never recover from it. My life will go on but I’ll never be the same because family means everything to me."
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Danika had leukaemia at the age of 11 but she recovered. McGuigan remembered his late daughter's childhood illness in the I'm a Celebrity camp while he was consoled by his fellow campmates.
The former boxer said: "She had leukaemia, when I was making The Boxer with Daniel Day Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she’d been diagnosed with leukaemia, 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."
Making five years since her death on social media, he wrote: "5 years today Nika, we miss you so much."
Barry McGuigan's wife and children
McGuigan started his family with his wife Sandra, who was his childhood sweetheart. Danika was their only daughter and they have three sons Shane, 36, Jake as well as Blain — of all of whom work in the boxing business.
In fact, it was McGuigan's sons who encouraged him to do I'm a Celebrity.
He said: "My sons, who I talk to all the time and ask for advice, I said, ‘Should I do this?’ They said, ‘Yeah, dad. You’ve got good discipline, you’re good with people and invariably you’ll be aggravated and irritated and annoyed, but you’ve got good forbearance. You’re good at handling stuff like that.’
"I’m hoping that I can do reasonably well and make a good account of myself. They also said, ‘Don’t pick your ears or pick your nose! And try not to use bad language.’"
The McGuigans now have seven grandchildren. It's been 40 years since they got married on 14 December 1981 when McGuigan was only 20 years old.
Ahead of the jungle stint, he explained they're still a great team. "I still can't cook. My fabulous wife does all that for me." He said.
"But I’m pretty good at cleaning. My wife and my three sons and my seven grandchildren come around, I end up doing the cleaning up. We’ve got a good old bit of team work going."
