Joe Swash’s famous sister Shana admits TV clip of him left her ‘really sad’

Shana Swash, 32, has admitted her big brother Joe Swash’s appearance on I’m A Celebrity… South Africa this year reminded her of their late father, who tragically died when the siblings were children.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Shana, who previously starred alongside Joe, 41, in EastEnders, explained it was also difficult to watch him get emotional on the ITV show.

Towards the end of Joe’s stint in the South African camp, viewers saw him becoming tearful as he missed his wife Stacey Solomon, 33, and their young children.

Addressing how she felt watching her brother’s heartache, Shana said: “One thing I say about my family is that we are with each other through thick and thin, and we will always support each other.

“It’s really hard when you see Joe getting emotional on telly like that, because you can’t get up and give him a cuddle and say it’s all okay.

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“So it is really difficult watching those moments, but I suppose they are moments that you probably wouldn’t see sometimes, because you need to be in a certain scenario, in a certain place, to be able to have those emotions.

“But as a younger sister, it was really difficult to watch it back.”

Shana poignantly added: “I know at one point, they showed a clip from back in 2018 when he was last in it, and it really got me emotional because he looked just like my father, my late dad.

“So it’s really sad to see it.”

“So for us, we prefer seeing him do the silly things and the stuff that makes us laugh, rather than the emotional side of it.”

Joe and Shana’s dad died after living with an undiagnosed heart condition – Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) – when the former was just 11-years-old.

The I’m A Celebrity star’s wife Stacey previously shared on ITV’s Loose Women that Joe struggled after their son Rex was born due to the trauma of losing his own father.

Stacey explained: “It is a trauma and I am always surprised that people are surprised that you grieve forever.

“Joe lost his dad when he was 11 and it had a fundamental impact on his life, especially when huge life events happen – even if they are really positive.”