Russell Watson had doubts about 'I'm A Celeb' due to 'massive' daily intake of life-saving drugs

Watch: Russell Watson speaks about the medication he takes to stay alive

One of I'm A Celebrity's latest evictees Russell Watson has shared that he was hesitant to compete on the programme due to the "massive" daily of amount of drugs he has to take due to past health issues.

The classical singer had an aggressive tumour discovered on his pituitary gland in 2006, before finding it had regrown again the following year.

Watson, who turned down the ITV programme five times before, spoke to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Wednesday's This Morning about how he had to manage his medication in the camp.

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Speaking about opening up on his health with his campmates, Watson said: “That was predominantly one of the reasons why I felt on the previous times I was asked, that I might not be able to deal with the camp life because I’ve got this massive daily intake of drugs.

"I don’t produce hormones naturally anymore so I have to inject growth hormone and have to take hydrocortisone which basically keeps me alive. If I didn’t take that I’d be gone within a couple of days.

"So all these different things that I have to do and this balance of hormones that I have to get right on a daily basis - I thought that that would affect my ability to do the best for myself… but once I got in there and figured it all out, I was absolutely fine.”

The father-of-two added that it took "about an hour" for all his medication to kick in in the mornings which led to him laying in bed for more time than the other stars, but that they were all "really understanding".

During his time on the programme, he spoke to his campmates about his two brain tumours.

He explained: “The second one was the ‘one’, the first wasn’t life threatening, it was painful and I nearly lost my vision. The second one was holy s***, I went home, went to bed and didn’t wake up because of a haemorrhage.

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“My assistant found me, called the paramedics and I knew I was in trouble because the paramedic kept saying ‘stay with us, stay with us’. We got to the hospital and they operated."

Watson left camp as part of a double eviction along with former EastEnders actor Jessica Plummer.

Currently left in the competition are Vernon Kay, Shane Richie, Giovanna Fletcher, AJ Pritchard, Jordan North and Mo Farrah.

Watch: Jessica Plummer and Russell Watson leave camp in double elimination