Original Gladiators cast racy confessions – orgy snub, ‘up all night’ and tiny pants

Gladiators was an explosive show that brought families together around the TV when it first aired on ITV in 1992, catapulting a number of its stars into household names.

Behind their alter egos, however, many led action-packed lives away from the cameras and made sizzling sex confessions as the show drew an incredible 14million viewers at its peak. The iconic gameshow will welcome a new generation of superhuman stars who will go head-to-head with contenders in the ultimate test of strength in its new home on BBC1.

The new cast have reportedly been slapped with a “sex and booze ban” following sexual tension behind the scenes, however, resulting in its toned athletes agreeing “to keep things PG”. The move is a far cry from the show’s previous form with regular stories of the stars’ escapades hitting the headlines over the years.

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Now, ahead of its launch on Saturday (January 13) we’ve delved into the archives to look back at the bedroom antics and racy confessions of its past stars.

Ulrika Jonsson, who presented the original format alongside former footballer John Fashanu recently opened up on some of the show’s racy secrets. The 56-year-old confessed that the jaw-dropping bodybuilders had no trouble finding bedroom companions during it’s peak in popularity.

She told the Express: “Was everyone having sex on Gladiators back in the day? Apparently, but not me – I was too busy learning my lines. In the first year, we took over a whole hotel floor and there were loads of jumping about from room to room. There are loads of stories. It was a sexy show.”

Cobra

Also known as Michael Wilson, Cobra – now 58 – recently added to Ulrika’s claims, admitting cast members would meet up for sex sessions at the Holiday Inn hotel close to the show’s filming location at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. “There were orgies going on in the hotel,” he told the Sun. “I was cheesed off – no one invited me.”

The star also confessed he had been drunk on a number of shows, adding: “Sometimes I would have six pints of Guinness, and two hours later I’m out in front of the cameras. There’s one show when I’m on the game called swingshot, which is like a bungee, and you can hear me going, ‘Ada ada wee’. I remember looking up the wall, chasing the guy who had 10 seconds head start. I’m seeing two of them. I’m thinking, ‘Which one have I got to catch?’ Ironically, I did catch him.”

Wolf

Wolf, whose real name is Michael Van Wijk, was one of the biggest stars of the show in the 1990s. As one of its elder statesmen and now 70 years old, he previously told us that other gladiators who were single and significantly younger than him during filming took full advantage of their newfound celebrity status at the time.

“What a lot of the other gladiators did, and they made the mistake of doing it because they were single, they were taking advantage of what they could do,” the gym owner said. “We get up in the morning to go to breakfast and we’d see girls in evening dresses leaving the other gladiators’ rooms. Then we’d be down at breakfast and they would be like, ‘Oh, I’ve been up all night. I’m shattered’.”

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Jet

Jet – real name Diane Youdale – once revealed how she asked for her skimpy show costume to be made even more revealing. The 51 year old, who married Zoe Gilbert last year after meeting her in a supermarket, said she wanted to show off her cleavage and make her legs look longer after she was initially put in “Bridget Jones pants”.

While the stars of the reboot will be more covered up, Diane explained: “I was a bit guilty of making my costume a little bit smaller. I had these Bridget Jones pants they originally put me in and I kind of made them more bikini bottoms to make my legs look longer. I ended up going back to this costume designer and saying: ‘I’ve got a bit of cleavage’.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk