MOST women would struggle to strip off in front of a stranger – but when Michaella McCollum was ordered to do so on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins she did not flinch.
She says being forced by intimidating prison guards to often do just that, during three years in a Peruvian prison for her part in a £1million cocaine-smuggling operation, left her “desensitised”.
Tomorrow night, in the final episode of the reality series, viewers will see Michaella being told to change into a boilersuit. It is ahead of 14 hours of mental and physical torture to mimic what real SAS soldiers endure during the force’s selection process.
In an exclusive interview, Michaella, 31, says: “Interrogation on SAS felt very similar to the experience and things that I had to do in Peru.
“It began with this guy who was like, ‘Strip all your clothes off’.
“Being forced to strip as a woman, that’s so humiliating.
“But I realised that I was so desensitised to being told to take your clothes off by a guard, because I’d been through that so many times in Peru.
“So when it happened in SAS I didn’t react. I guess I was programmed for so many years, that’s just what you do.
“The day that was filmed, it was my time of the month, but I did it without thinking.
“When I was in prison you can’t show emotion, it’s just not beneficial. So a lot of the time you have to try to keep yourself composed and not react, not scream and not challenge.
“I had the experience of that to learn from — to just sit and listen, don’t react.”
Michaella, from Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, was just 19 when she was caught in 2013, alongside pal Melissa Reid, at Jorge Chavez International Airport, Lima, trying to smuggle 12kg of cocaine.
The duo were quickly dubbed the Peru Two after they were pictured looking shell-shocked as customs officers arrested them in the middle of the crowded airport.
They initially claimed they had been coerced by an armed gang but subsequently pleaded guilty.
Michaella said she was at a party in Ibiza, high on drugs, when she was offered £5,000 to “go on a trip”. She assumed she would be transporting drugs, but had no idea of the scale of the operation. She says it was the “worst decision” of her life.
The friends were sentenced to six years and eight months in the overcrowded and unsanitary Ancon 2 prison.
After being released in 2016, having served three years, she wrote a book, starred in a BBC documentary and rebuilt her life by doing a degree in business management.
She now lives in Spain, raising her seven-year-old twin boys Rafael and Rio as a single mum.
She regularly posts on social media, showing off her glamorous new look thanks to the “confidence-boosting” boob job she had in December.
She was picked as one of the 14 contestants for this year’s celebrity SAS on Channel 4, which puts famous faces through brutal challenges normally reserved for people training to be in the Special Forces.
‘LOT STRONGER’
Michaella says: “Mentally, prison made me a lot stronger. When that ended I was just 23. But I felt like I was a lot more mentally mature than most 23-year-olds.
“I felt like I had lived a whole life. It helped me prepare for life, build resilience and be able to adapt to change. I do have a touch of PTSD, but I feel like it’s very common for people who experience those types of traumas.
“I mean, who teaches you to learn to deal with the trauma while you’re going through the trauma?”
It certainly gave her the resilience to face the interrogation on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, head on.
I do have a touch of PTSD, but I feel like it’s very common for people who experience those types of traumas.
Michaella McCollum
Fans will see her suffer hours of mental and physical attrition, having to keep up a cover story while being questioned by former Special Forces interrogators.
And Michaella says that listening to hours of intense noises, like screaming pigs being killed, and being forced to sit in stress positions, left her mentally broken. She adds: “When you’re in the situation, mentally it’s very challenging, because you start to go crazy. I felt like I was just rocking with all of these crazy thoughts.
“I felt like the whole thing was very trippy. It felt like an out-of-body experience, it was insane.
“I remember sometimes my legs got so tired or my arms got so tired, I would bend them slightly and somebody would come and hit me with a stick to make them straight again. I was just like, ‘Oh, when is this going to end?’.”
Michaella’s fellow contestants included singer Lucy Spraggan, S Club’s Hannah Spearritt, drag artist Bimini, Love Island’s Adam Collard, boxer Conor Benn, The Traitors winner Harry Clark and former footballer Troy Deeney. Just five make it to tomorrow night’s final phase.
Michaella says she shared a bond with contestant Rebecca Loos, who became famous for her alleged fling with David Beckham in 2003, because they have both been “judged”.
She explains: “She was sleeping opposite me so I had quite a good relationship with her. We still talk. I thought she was really lovely, super-nice. We didn’t go into much detail about her past, because she did not feel comfortable talking about that.
“When all of that mayhem was happening, I think I was nine. So I don’t remember that stuff or how she was viewed. But I knew she had a really difficult time, and was being judged. We had quite a nice bond.”
And after making friends with singer Lucy, who was on The X Factor in 2012, she attended her wedding, where Simon Cowell walked her down the aisle.
Michaella says: “A few days after we stopped filming, I went to her wedding. I keep in touch with Adam, Bimini, Conor and Troy.
“I feel like I formed closer bonds with them, maybe because we were there the longest, which surprised me. It’s such a strange mixture of people.”
Michaella loved the experience but says the two weeks in the Welsh countryside took a toll on her body.
She adds: “I actually did lose quite a lot of weight. I wasn’t complaining, I was snatched! I remember me and Lucy Spraggan being like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got six-packs’.
I feel unstoppable now. Those types of opportunities don’t come very often in life.
Michaella McCollum
“I’ve never had a six-pack before. You can see my abs.”
And despite everything she’s been through, getting to the final has changed her for the better.
She says: “I feel unstoppable now. Those types of opportunities don’t come very often in life.
“You get to see a completely different version of yourself — the real, true you, which we often disguise and we compress. With everyday life, we forget who we really are.
“I’m really proud of what I achieved.”