Pete Wicks has revealed ‘Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls’ bosses wanted him to quit after he was attacked by a shark.
The reality TV star has opened up about the "terrifying" moment the animal’s mouth was "tightening" around his hand, and while he was determined to stay he has admitted he should have taken their advice.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: "They wanted to take me off The Island but I don’t give up on anything. I didn’t want to go.
"I broke my fingers and bent up like a banana and swelled up but on the island there’s not much you can do about it. My finger is still bent now and I don’t have much feeling in it – but I know that’s my fault for not leaving when they wanted me to.
"I wanted to prove I could do it no matter what. That was probably to my detriment because I’ve now got a weak pinkie."
The horrific ordeal happened when Pete and his fellow celebrities – who appear on the Channel 4 show fending for themselves on a Pacific isle – went fishing, only for a shark to get into his net.
He added: "It got quite serious quite quickly by the fact that I was trying to tread water with a shark attached to my hand that was trying to pull me back under and we were both caught up in this net.
"I could not get this shark off my hand for love or money; we ended up wrestling for a bit. Then after about three or four minutes of being in the water and going up and down I started getting a bit panicky because I lost the feeling in my finger, I thought my finger had gone."
Comparing the grip to a "vice", the ‘TOWIE’ star revealed he was actually furious with himself for getting into that situation.
He said: "I remembered watching the National Geographic and how to get sharks to let go, you poke it in the eye, so I did that and it ended up releasing my hand.
"I was so angry at myself that it happened. I put myself in that position where I’ve been bitten by a shark and actually it was just a big blunder."
Pete Wicks: Celebrity Island bosses wanted me to quit over shark attack
