Upcoming Netflix show Bear Hunt is expected to test contestants to their limits, as they prepare to be hunted down and eliminated by ex-SAS trooper Bear Grylls. Yet survival in the jungle could be only one aspect of their worries, as a secret history between two of the hopefuls has now been revealed.
Ladies’ man Danny Cipriani, who famously dated one of Britain’s most well-known glamour models, Kelly Brook, was the subject of some very candid comments from Ben Foden in the past. Handing out advice for Danny way back in 2010, he argued that he should have focused less on his love life and more on his rugby.
Now his ex-wife Una Healy will come face-to-face with him – and followers are wondering whether he’ll have a bone to pick with her about the man she was happily committed to at the time. Ben had told The Mirror, just two years before marrying Irish songstress Una, “My girlfriend is in the limelight more than me.
“If I am ever pictured with her it’s normally, ‘Here is Una Healy… and rugby boyfriend Ben Foden’. I’m never going to be the main focus.” He continued candidly: “I’ve never been a big clubber anyway. It’s always been a part of the rugby culture to get drunk – but I do it with the boys! For me, it’s rugby, rugby, rugby.”
Addressing Danny’s regular tabloid presence at the time, he added: “Cipriani has been a bit unlucky. He has probably done it a bit too soon. He needed to concentrate on his rugby a little bit more.” It’s been almost 15 years since the comments, but will Danny have forgiven and forgotten?
The same year as Ben’s comments, the rugby ace revealed that he’d be leaving the UK to join the Melbourne Rebels, and cited negative attention and “bad boy” stereotypes as being part of the reason for his departure.
The Guardian wrote at the time: “How has it happened that Cipriani has been swamped in an atmosphere so poisonous he feels that he can only save himself as a rugby player by going into exile on the other side of the world?”
He went on to clarify in the same publication: “I just got so worn down by the negativity. People scrutinise my life and question my upbringing.”
Revealing that he’d considered quitting over the backlash about his so-called party lifestyle, he added: “[People] don’t understand how much it hurts to be judged like that.”
