Former Boxing Champion Barry McGuigan Opens Up About Daughter’s Death On I’m A Celebrity

Barry McGuigan broke down in tears on I’m A Celebrity on Monday night as he opened up to campmates about his daughter’s tragic death.

The Irish former WBA featherweight champion explained his daughter, Danika, ed away in 2019 aged 33, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.

Discussing the loss with his I’m A Celebrity campmates, McGuigan spoke of how his life has changed.

Asked if he goes to church, he replied: “I used to go to church a lot but after my daughter… you know, not so much.”

McGuigan then explained what happened to his daughter. At 11-years-old, Danika was diagnosed with acute lymphoid leukemia.

Barry said: “She had leukaemia, when I was making the boxing with Daniel Day Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she’d been diagnosed with leukaemia, they thought she wasn’t going to get better but she fought back and she won it.

“She had two years of chemo. She was good, she came back.”

Visibly upset, McGuigan’s campmates attempted to comfort him.

In response, Barry thanked them for their kindness, adding: “Thank you, you’re all so lovely.

“I really appreciate it.”

Later on, McGuigan explained to Loose Women’s Jane Moore and Danny that Danika then had bowel cancer as an adult.

Breaking down in tears, he said: “Stage four bowel cancer, five weeks.

“Five weeks and she died.”

Barry and wife Sandra also have three sons, Shane, Jake and Blane.

Speaking to Belfast Live in 2021, McGuigan said: “I lost my daughter two years ago, and it’s been shocking.

“I’ll never recover from it.

“My life will go on, but I’ll never be the same because family means everything to me.”

Barry McGuigan’s Boxing Career

Nicknamed ‘The Clones Cyclone’, Barry McGuigan held the WBA and lineal featherweight titles from 1985 to 1986.

From 1983 to 1985, he held the British and Earopean featherweight titles.

McGuigan was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1985, and inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.

As a bantamweight, he won gold for Northern Ireland at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada.

He also competed at the 1980 Olympics, making the round-of-16.

In professional boxing, Barry McGuigan recorded 32 wins and three losses in 35 fights, including 28 knockout victories.

His last professional bout was on 31 May, 1989 against Jim McDonnell in Manchester.