I’m a Celeb star Simon Gregson says he hated early Coronation Street fame: ‘It was shocking’

Actor has played Steve McDonald on the longrunning ITV soap for more than three decades

Coronation Street star Simon Gregson has revealed he hated the early fame he experienced as a young actor on the popular soap.

Gregson is one of Corrie’s longest-serving stars, having played Steve McDonald on the ITV show for more than three decades.

However, in tonight’s (30 November) episode of I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, the 47-year-old revealed that he did not enjoy his first experience of the spotlight.

“It was really negative, getting beaten up, spat at,” he told his fellow campmates. “It was shocking.”

Gregson joined Coronation Street in 1989 after auditioning while at school in Stockport. During the Nineties, he regularly made headlines for various traffic offences and problems with drugs and alcohol.

Speaking to The Mirror in 2014, he said: “Me and my mates would get dangerously drunk. We were really stupid. I went completely wild. I’d pay for everyone to stay in hotel suites. I’d go through a bottle of Scotch at 4 or 5am after the pub. I was spending all my salary going out or on cars.

“Sometimes I’d be two hours late for work. Other times I’d not be there at all. I didn’t take it seriously and I didn’t want to be there. I hated being famous. I’m not proud of my behaviour, but getting wasted was a way of forgetting.”

I’m a Celebrity airs each night on ITV at 9pm. See the full list of contestants here.