Holly Willoughby is a survivor, says Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls spoke exclusively to Yahoo about Celebrity Bear Hunt and working alongside Holly Willoughby.
Bear Grylls has praised Holly Willoughby's bravery after they worked together on Netflix's Celebrity Bear Hunt.
He told Yahoo UK: "She's got a strong heart, I think, and a survivor heart. She is a survivor."
Celebrity Bear Hunt sees Grylls, 50, hunt down the stars in the "bear pit" which tests their endurance and survival instincts.
She's got a strong heart, I think, and a survivor heart. She is a survivor.
Willoughby, 43, hosts the Netflix reality series, having left behind her "comfort zone" in daytime TV after 14 years hosting This Morning. She quit the ITV morning show after being a target for a murder plot; consequently Gavin Plumb, 37, was sentenced to life in jail.
Holly Willoughby is brave
While Willoughby doesn't think she's being brave with her job on Celebrity Bear Hunt, Grylls completely disagrees.
The survival expert celebrated his co-star for facing snakes and scorpions in the Costa Rica jungle as well as tackling a new challenge with a TV show that is a far cry away from the This Morning job she left behind.
Grylls told Willoughby: "I think you were brave though because it's doing new, difficult, uncomfortable things. It's just the environment itself, regardless of whether you're charging through it being chased or not.
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"You're in a dynamic of difficult things. You're still dealing with snakes and scorpions and all of that stuff, and then you're dealing with new teams and new crews and new shows. I think so much of that is a state of mind."
He added: "I love the fact that Holly was she was at the top of her game already, but I've noticed with people, often with Running Wild guests I take away, why do they do this stuff when you're at the top of your game? Because it's a state of mind, it's still: push yourself."
It's clear the adventurer has a lot of admiration for Willoughby. He told her: "And you did. And you did it so well."
To which she responded: "Aw, thanks Bear!"
Now Holly Willoughby is more open to saying 'yes'
Before hosting the show, Willoughby admitted she would never have said "yes" to competing in a reality show like Celebrity Bear Hunt. Having witnessed the positive impact Celebrity Bear Hunt has had on the celebrities taking part, Willoughby said she would now be open to considering it.
She said: "Do you know what's interesting is if you'd have said right from the get-go, 'there's this new show Celebrity Bear Hunt, would you like to be one of the celebrities in it?' I'd have gone, 'what do I have to do? Sorry, count me out'.
"And there's no way, because I just would have been too scared, I wouldn't have been brave enough.
"But having witnessed it now and seen the difference that it's made, what those celebrities take home from it, personally, their own individual little battles with things that they overcome, what they then bring back into the real world with them.
"Actually you watch it and you go, oh, that you do get something like some real heart from it, so I don't know. I don't know! I’m open to it more than I would have been."
At this point, Grylls jumped in to say he thought Willoughby would succeed on the show because she is a brave individual.
"I think she would be surprisingly good," he said. "Once you got rid of the fluffy bit! She's got a strong heart."
He added: "Because the first few times when you see people go into the bear pit looking all very together, and then bedraggled coming out, it's like what the hell's going on in there? But I think once you kind of got over that, you realise you saw then beyond that, the growth and the empowering stuff and that's always intriguing. You see it on the show close up and it’s a fun part for me."
Willoughby agreed that seeing the journey of the stars was a highlight for her.
Celebrity Bear Hunt is now streaming on Netflix.