Olly Murs is terrified of going swimming – because he has a phobia about a willy-eating fish.
The 38-year-old singer won’t take a dip in the sea or a lake after learning about the candiru fish, which lodges itself in the unwitting victim’s urethra.
Speaking on Alan Carr’s Life’s A Beach podcast, The Voice star said: “I’m scared of the sea. I’m scared of the water.
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“It’s only because I heard a story once about I guy who went into the sea at night time. He went for a wee and he felt a shock, but didn’t know what it was.
(Image: Getty Images)
“A couple of weeks later he had to go to the doctor because he had a swelling situation downstairs – by the way, this isn’t me, don’t think this is my story. Anyway, he’s found a fish had lodged itself inside of his urethra.”
Olly explained: “When you’re in the water, if you urinate in the sea they get attracted to the heat.
“Just be careful if you go skinny-dipping. If you feel a little pinch you know what’s happening.
“I’ll never, ever wee in the sea ever again.”
The candiru, sometimes known as the “penis fish”, is a tiny parasitic catfish reported to swim into the body openings of unprotected bathers.
But it’s not something to worry about on your next trip to the Costa del Sol – the Candiru is a freshwater dweller, found swimming in the Amazon.
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Olly confessed in 2016 that he actually “can’t swim” when confronted by a very strange question from a fan.
Asked “would you rather have a fish body with a human head, or a human body with a fish head?” Olly had a rather interesting response.
He told Hallam FM: “I can’t swim, so it would be cool to have my face on a fish’s body to save some lives.”
The singer has a long line of run-ins with water-dwellers, after being forced to snog a fish while blindfolded during his X Factor performance of Kiss Me in 2015.
He was left with a bleeding lip after puckering up for the fish, not knowing what he was getting himself into.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
