Stephen Mulhern admits he ‘cried a lot’ during filming of deeply personal new show

TV favourite Stephen Mulhern has addressed interest surrounding his relationship status in a new interview promoting his upcoming show, The Accidental Tourist.

The telly star, 48, revealed that viewers will get an intimate glimpse at him in the new show, as he teased the emotional toll making the programme took on him.

Stephen Mulhern talks breaking down and relationship status

In an interview with The Mirror, Stephen spoke about his new show, The Accidental Tourist.

The programme, which will be airing on ITV soon, will see Stephen whisked away on a trip to South Korea by pals Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.

Whilst in the Asian country, Stephen will be pushing himself out of his comfort zone by eating foods he doesn’t like with people he doesn’t know. Now, some months on from filming, Stephen has admitted that the show took quite a toll on him.

Not only was the show difficult physically, but it was also filmed not long after the death of his father, Christopher.

“You know, Emma Willis called me Fifty Shades of Beige because all my food is beige. I don’t travel a lot, I always go to Florida, the food’s safe, and we know what we like. But the idea [with Accidental Tourist] is I step out of my comfort zone and they send me away, I was doing stuff that I’d never do,” he said.

‘It’s stripped down’

The Deal or No Deal star continued.

“When people see it, they’ll see a completely different side… It’s stripped down. No one’s ever seen me cry on the telly. But it was quite nice to not be behind a format, I’ve never done that. You’re going to see behind the razzle-dazzle, if you like. People have thankfully seen me on TV for nearly 25 years, but they may go: ‘Well, what’s he like at home? Is he going out with someone?'” he then said, addressing speculation around his love life.

Stephen then went on to say that being at the centre of the show and being so exposed was “scary”.

“I’m at the very centre of this, and it’s scary. You’ll see a lot of emotion, 100%. You’ll see me totally out of my comfort zone. At one point halfway through, I remember sitting on the bed. And I was like, was this the right choice? Was it the right decision? They film and film and film and they just get everything. I’ve never done that. No one’s ever seen me cry – but I cried a lot,” he said.

‘I couldn’t stomach anything’

The star then went on to talk about some of the challenges, one of which was eating an exotic fish from a market.

Stephen admitted that he “literally couldn’t stomach anything”. This, in turn, led to him losing “half a stone”.

He then added that he “couldn’t eat” for “two and a half weeks”.

Read more: Stephen Mulhern on fears over his TV future: ‘There’s a thousand people ready to take my place’

The Accidental Tourist will air on ITV later this year. 

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