TV chef and rapper Big Zuu has said he would like to visit the Lake District and “connect with nature” after winning Netflix competition series Celebrity Bear Hunt.
The eight-episode programme, hosted by former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby, saw famous faces dropped into the jungle in Costa Rica to become prey for survival expert Bear Grylls.
After numerous challenges, London-born TV star Big Zuu, real name Zuhair Hassan, was crowned the winner, beating TV presenter Steph McGovern, Ted Lasso star Kola Bokinni, model Lottie Moss and Irish singer Una Healy in the final.
“We all deserved to win, especially Steph and Una.
“I think the only thing that kind of gave it to me, I guess, was my performance in the final, and I think over the entire series I was just very focused, very driven, and I made some mistakes, but I gave it my all.
“I never left anything outside of it, I gave my all. So I think that’s why I won.”
He added: “I’m normally really not on the nature thing. I don’t care about hiking. I don’t want to go camping. I’ve never done anything like that in my life.
“So now I feel like I’m at one with the world. I want to connect with nature and stuff, it made me get into stuff like fire-making and knots.”
“I just like typical lad stuff. I never, ever thought I’d be one to connect with the nature and want to go experience the world in a different way, but Bear really gave that to me, and I’m very proud of that, because the world is beautiful, and I got to learn that through Costa Rica.”
The 12 celebrities who entered the competition stayed in a lodge in a remote area of the Central American country.
The show involved them completing survival-style challenges where their skills were judged by Grylls.
Speaking about the Bear Pit, Big Zuu told PA: “It is like (the film) Hunger Games.
“I definitely felt like I was in The Hunger Games. It was mad, it was surreal.
“Even thinking about it now, like, I get a little bit of goosebumps.
“It’s a real place. It is massive. It is scary. You do not want to go in there. I didn’t want to be in the Bear Pit.”
