Craig Charles says he handled the limelight “badly” when he shot to fame.
The DJ and actor, 55, who first found fame on the BBC sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf, told The Big Issue magazine that he was not prepared for his success.
“I was famous when I was quite young. There was no preparation, no fame school where I came from,” he said.
“You’re not taught how to handle it, this sudden influx of wealth and fame. And I handled it all very badly.
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“I was unreliable. I was cocky. I was always late. I didn’t prepare things. I used to wing it a lot. I mean, friends can come and go, but enemies, they last a lifetime.”
While he was on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2014, Charles discovered that his older brother, Dean, had died.
He flew home immediately, and the ex-Coronation Street star has previously told how his brother had tried to contact him before he joined the ITV show.
“If I could have one last conversation with anyone it would be my brother Dean,” Charles told The Big Issue.
“He tried to get hold of me just before I went into the jungle.
“We’d not spoken for a few years, there was a family falling out. And I just thought, ‘You know what, I’ll leave it, go and do the jungle thing and I’ll come out and we’ll all be together for Christmas.’
“And he died while I was over there… The doctor said: ‘I’ve got some terrible news to tell you, Craig. Your brother Dean has passed away.’
“So I had to get on a plane straight away. He was so far away. And it took so long to get back. I’d have loved to have had a conversation with him. I’d have loved to have made up.”
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