Former Dancing On Ice judge Jason Gardiner has ditched the world of showbiz and has been living in a tent in Portugal.
The 49-year-old TV personality quit the ITV show in August 2019 following his on-air feud with former contestant Gemma Collins.
He’d had a fractious relationship with the reality star which led to him saying that she “looked like a fridge”.
Jason is now an eco-warrior, living in a tent while studying soil, planting flowers, and even scavenging in skips.
The controversial TV judge spent three months living in a tent while building eco-friendly houses for refugees, calling his interesting new career a “real life changing experience”.
Having quit London for Portugal, Jason told The Sun: “I have found a new life that isn’t about the toxic environment of the TV industry.
“My tenure on Dancing On Ice was always marred with controversy and lots of issues but the problem is, I didn’t realise how toxic it was until I left.
“It took me a while to decompress from it, I’ll be honest.”
He also told The Irish Mirror that he’d been working on a solo stage show before the pandemic hit, and his company was not eligible for government support so he had to shut it down.
He struggled with his mental health until a kind neighbour checked in on his well-being and offered him work on her allotment.
Jason revealed: “The minute she took me there something happened. I don’t know what it was but I just got the excitement back in my life.
“I would wake at 6am every morning and I wouldn’t leave the allotment ‘til eight-nine o’clock at night. I did that seven days a week.”
He was a judge on the ITV juggernaut since 2006, but bosses feared his acid tongue would lead to celebrity contestants accusing him of being a “bully.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
