'What a mum you are' - Una Healy describes 'nightmare' she faced on Celebrity Bear Hunt

Tipperary’s Una Healy took her latest adventure by the horns and made it to the final three in Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt. 

Holly Willoughby hosts this action-packed competition show that sees a group of unlikely celebrities dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for one of the world's most fearsome predators – Bear Grylls.  

Thurles woman Una Healy decided to face Bear Grylls and this challenge but initially she didn’t know why she was doing it. 

“I actually haven’t got a clue why I am doing it! It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and when I look around and see all the amazing other people that are doing it, I feel just so privileged to be here and be given this opportunity and to share that experience with them too. It’s really exciting and amazing to be here in Costa Rica. I feel very lucky and I want to make my kids proud as well, because they’re really rooting for me at home.”

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Una rose to fame in 2008 as a member of five-piece girl group The Saturdays. She is a single mother to two children who were a “huge inspiration” in her decision to take on Bear Grylls.

Una split from her ex-husband Ben Foden in 2018 who she shares her two young children Aoife Belle and Tadgh with. 

A very touching moment that we saw in episode one of the show was when Una shared a moment she had with her two children before heading off after the family faced going through this divorce.

"My divorce was really hard as it was a family breaking up. However I am doing this for my kids. They were saying every night when they go to bed they will be thinking of me and that is literally what is going to get me through this.

“They’re really excited. I wouldn’t have done it if they were worried about me being away that long. They were like “go for it, mummy.” So that’s really reassuring for me and also it drives me too. ”

Una’s motherly instincts did not go away as she entered camp as she was seen to be particularly supportive to her campmates and jokingly called herself “jungle mammy.”

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“I am very much used to working as part of a team, being in a girl group. Everyone is as important as the next and you’re all in it together as a group. So I think that I’m there to support the others if they’re finding it tough.”

We particularly see this in episode two as Una is seen to give Kate Moss’s sister Lottie Moss a big ‘Bear’ hug as she broke down to her campmates.

Also in episode two, Una is seen to face a challenge with two other campmates on her team. One member, Shirley Ballas was afraid of heights and Una comforted her and took charge with how to tackle the challenge as a team. 

Una wore her heart on her sleeve in this series. In episode three we see a touching moment where she gets emotional as she is “overwhelmed” by everyone’s stories. 

“One thing I am going to take away from this is talk less and listen more. I am here to figure out a lesson and it is from the others. Others are a lot more outspoken and confident but I have found myself doing a lot of listening. I think that is something I have been missing in my life, not really being able to process things. I have carried a lot of pain and trauma in events but I think a lot of the time when I am not listening to people I am maybe making mistakes.” 

In episode three we see Una face the dreaded ‘Bear Hunt’ – a brutal game of cat and mouse where celebrities are hunted down by Bear himself and, if captured, face elimination from the show.

Una managed to beat Bear and escape however she said it was like she was “living a nightmare.”

“That was the hardest thing I've ever done. It felt like I was digging my own grave. Getting out was the best feeling in the whole wide world. I had a nightmare when I was nine of being chased and it was like I was living my nightmare.”

Una made it to the very end and was the last of the three celebrities standing to see who would win the crown and become the champion which was to be decided by Bear himself. 

When addressing Una in the final episode Bear said: “I admire your spirit so much. Your attitude is incredible. What a mum you are. Your eyes are on fire, you are shining bright.”

Big Zu took home the crown in the end but Una is still a winner in Ireland’s eyes and more importantly her children’s.