A male contestant on the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins has said he felt ‘betrayed’ by producers after he was ‘forced’ to punch a female contestant during a forthcoming episode.
Social media star Jack Joseph, 25, has claimed he was sent into a psychological ‘spiral’ after having to hit Olympian Emily Seebohm, 33, despite telling bosses on the Channel 4 show that he couldn’t cope with the task.
Footage seen by the Daily Mail ahead of Sunday’s broadcast shows the comedy content creator punching the retired Australian swimmer to the ground during a ‘milling’ task.
The challenge, which left fellow celebrities gasping in shock, required the pair to exchange uninterrupted punches on command, stopping only when instructed to do so.
A Channel 4 spokesperson said: ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins is TV’s toughest test. Milling is a long-standing and integral part of the process.
‘Recruits sign up to the show knowing they will be taking part in tasks designed to push them out of their comfort zones and each recruit is treated equally, regardless of their gender.
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins Jack Joseph has said he felt ‘betrayed’ by producers after he was ‘forced’ to punch a female contestant during a forthcoming episode
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is back this Sunday 4 January at 9pm
‘At any point the recruits can choose not to take part in a task and voluntarily withdraw from the course.’
But speaking to the Mail, Joseph said the task, set to be broadcast to millions as part of Channel 4’s flagship military reality series, was a ‘real-life nightmare.’
‘You’re basically forced to do whatever they tell you, and they’re screaming in your face, they’re going, “We don’t care who it is, just hit them,”’ he said.
‘They’re going, “Go straight for the nose, go straight square in the face,” I thought that’s not happening.’
Joseph said the pressure of being forced to continue, despite his objections, caused his thoughts to unravel.
‘It felt like I had no control over my brain, it was just spiralling and spiralling and spiralling,’ he said.
‘The negative thoughts were just snowballing and snowballing, and I couldn’t get out of my head.
‘I wish I could describe to you how my brain operated in that scenario because it went into a mode where I couldn’t string a sentence together.
Footage seen by the Daily Mail ahead of Sunday’s broadcast shows the comedy content creator punching Olympian Emily Seebohm to the ground during a ‘milling’ task
‘It was like a real-life nightmare. Especially after, I felt awful.’
The social media star, who has 4.4million followers on TikTok, said the situation was especially harrowing because he had explicitly flagged the scenario during a pre-show interview.
‘In the interview, they said what would make you quit, I’ve seen all the series before, so I said milling against a woman,’ he said.
‘I think they decided that’s probably a good way to try and kick me off the show early, you know, attack my weakness.
‘For me, it’s tricky because I don’t consider myself a celebrity. I think this was a massive opportunity for me and I didn’t want to be off the show in two hours.’
Joseph said he felt ‘betrayed’ by the programme as he repeatedly stated he was uncomfortable with the task and was then the only male contestant instructed to strike a woman.
‘I did feel betrayed, because I said I didn’t want to do it and they made me do it and I felt absolutely awful,’ he said. ‘All I could think about is, I’ve come on here, this is a TV show, and you’re making me do this on TV.’
‘To be honest, I was p****d off,’ he added. ‘But then you don’t have room to be p****d off, there’s no space in there to be p****d off. They don’t care, no one in there cares.’
Joseph insisted he did everything possible to avoid hurting Ms Seebohm by deliberately aiming for her head guard rather than her face in the hope the fight would be stopped.
But months on from filming, the 25-year-old said the incident still felt unresolved.
‘To be honest, I don’t think it was really resolved,’ he said. ‘I just have to live with it. There was no other option.’
Joseph said he felt ‘betrayed’ by the programme as he repeatedly stated he was uncomfortable with the task and was then the only male contestant instructed to strike a woman
Ms Seebohm, one of Australia’s most decorated swimmers who has competed at four Olympic Games, exclusively told the Daily Mail that she too found the ordeal upsetting.
‘I got, like, quite upset about it,’ she said. ‘I don’t love fighting at all. I definitely can, like, stand up for myself, but I find that physical stuff just really hard.
‘I knew I didn’t want to fight, and I knew he didn’t want to fight,’ she added. ‘That’s why it was so uncomfortable for both of us.’
Ms Seebohm said Joseph’s distress was evident to her during the task, adding that he repeatedly indicated he did not want to continue.
‘I feel sorry for Jack because he did not want to do that, like he asked to stop,’ she said. ‘I don’t hold anything against him, and I know he didn’t want to do it.’
‘He was physically, like, upset,’ she added. ‘Like he felt ill.’
Ms Seebohm said she realised almost immediately that she would likely be paired with a male recruit after noticing an imbalance in numbers.
‘I counted, so there were three Aussie girls,’ she said. ‘And when the Brits came in I noticed straight up, there were only two girls. I knew at that very moment, I was like, if we do the milling I’m definitely going against a guy.’
It is not the first time Channel 4 has come under fire for broadcasting scenes of male contestants striking women on the show – in 2022 Pete Wicks went up against Jennifer Ellison during the milling challenge
In an interview at the time, the TOWIE star said: ‘I just don’t know if I can fight a bird,’ adding that he hated the idea of anyone fighting his mother
The task was overseen by former SAS sergeant major Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham MBE, a long-standing figure on the Channel 4 series, who rejected claims the scene amounted to domestic violence.
‘It’s not about a man and woman, it’s about an enemy,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘Milling is the only thing that represents true war, true battle without shooting each other.’
‘I’ve seen women batter men, that’s ok in the public eye, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘For the feminists, yeah, we live in a world of equal rights, women can stand up for themselves. Women will f*****g do the job.’
It is not the first time Channel 4 has come under fire for broadcasting scenes of male contestants striking women on the show.
In 2022, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins viewers saw Pete Wicks left in tears after the show pitted him against actress Jennifer Ellison during the milling challenge.
In an interview at the time, the TOWIE star said: ‘I just don’t know if I can fight a bird,’ adding that he hated the idea of anyone fighting his mother.
Ms Ellison, 42, said in her interview: ‘I’m all for equal opportunities and everything, but I would be a bit scared fighting a fella, because they’re stronger than you and bigger than you.’
The brutal fight ended with Wicks, 37, striking her in the head, leaving him shaken and upset.
The programme has continued to air such scenes across both its celebrity and non-celebrity formats.
In 2019, one of the first women to appear on SAS: Who Dares Wins claimed she was ‘thankful’ after being punched in the face by a man during a boxing task.
Midwife Louise Gabbitas, then 29, deliberately chose to go up against a male contestant and was punched several times in the face before falling to the ground.
That year marked the first time women were allowed to compete in the show’s four-year history, following a Ministry of Defence decision to open frontline combat roles, including the SAS, to female soldiers.
Three years later, Channel 4 viewers were again left horrified when 31-year-old Lauren Calvert was floored by a heavy punch from a male opponent during the same task.
Footage showed her dropping to the ground looking visibly exhausted and beaten.
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is available to stream, and watch live, on Sundays and Mondays at 9pm, from January 4 on Channel 4.
