Simon Gregson: Who is the I’m a Celebrity 2021 contestant?

Actor has played Steve McDonald on Coronation Street since 1989

Simon Gregson is one of the celebrities competing on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 2021.

The actor is a very familiar face to many British viewers, having played Steve McDonald on the ITV soap Coronation Street for more than three decades.

Gregson, who grew up in Stockport, has won many British Soap Awards for his performance as McDonald, who he has played since 1989.

Aside from Corrie, Gregson has appeared on the show All Star Family Fortunes, a celebrity special of Catchphrase and Celebrity Haunted Mansion, which he won.

In the Nineties, Gregson made headlines for various traffic offences and problems with alcohol and drugs.

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.”

Simon Gregson (ITV/Shutterstock)

He added: “The cocaine use came hand in hand with the alcohol abuse. I started smoking marijuana first.

“Reality wasn’t too great so this ­alternative reality with the use of substances was a better place to be. It was an experimentation at first and I could afford it. I was spending a lot on it. It changed me as a person.”

Gregson has been married to long-term partner Emma Gleave since 2010. They have three sons.

I’m a Celebrity airs on ITV at 9pm.