Dani Dyer suffered a nosebleed after being punched by a Married At First Sight star when they were filming together for the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins

Dani Dyer suffered a nosebleed after being punched by a Married At First Sight star. The former Love Island winner, 29, was filming for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins with Australian reality star Jessika Power when she and her fellow contestant were tasked with going face-to-face in a fight during Milling.

New pictures have revealed that Dani, who was due to take part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing but had to be replaced by West End star Amber Davies after sustaining an injury before the first live show, started to bleed when Jessika threw her punch but seemed unbothered by it and carried on.

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The new edition of the gruelling Channel 4 survival show sees 14 Brits and Australians competing against each other in north Africa as they are put through their paces by chief Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham. who admitted he was “surprised” at the way Dani had handled herself.

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He said: “Little Dani Dyer surprised me. Very small girl. She was very timid at the start, lacked a lot of confidence and didn’t really believe in herself. She was willing to give up, but found a second wind with support from myself, Chris Oliver, Rudy Reyes and Foxy (Jason Fox). She never believed she could do it, but she could.”

Dani, who is the daughter of EastEnders legend Danny Dyer, has been married to footballer Jarrod Bowen since May, and they have twins Summer and Star together. She admitted that prior to agreeing to take part in the series, it was her sports star husband who gave her some valuable advice.

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She told The Sun: “Jarrod told me to up my training before I went in. We went up to his family in the Midlands. I was training in potato fields with my dad, running up and down. I said to Jarrod, ‘I can’t believe you do all your training outside, even if it rains. I’ve always loved being indoors doing the gym stuff. To go outside was the nitty-gritty of it all. I’m really glad I did it.”

Dani will also be seen alongside Special Forces staff in South Africa with cricketer Graeme Swann, Love Island’s Gabby Allen and rugby player Ben Cohen this series. She said: “I knew it was going to be hard, and I didn’t go in there thinking, ‘It’s just a TV thing,’ but it was just as hard, if not harder. You just never switch off, whether you’re back in your dorms or out on a challenge. You’re constantly second-guessing and never knowing what’s next. It was brutal – but I really enjoyed it.”

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The reality star did admit that her husband and her dad both thought she was “nuts” for doing it. She said: “I’ve always been petrified watching it, but I never get to push myself out of my comfort zone,” she says. “In the job I do, I get so many amazing opportunities, and when this came around, I thought, ‘When am I ever going to be able to test myself?’ My dad thought I was absolutely nuts because he’s not a fitness person at all. When he does Soccer Aid, he has a fag just before he goes on the pitch. He was really proud of me, but we went, ‘I’d never do that. I don’t know how you’re my child!”

While it proved to be a gruelling experience, Dani learnt that she’s “a lot stronger” than she thought. She admitted: “I do find things hard in life. I beat myself up a lot and put a lot of pressure on myself In there, you can do anything life throws at you. With the Directing Staff, they scream and shout at yo,u but they want to get the best out of you.”

In fact, being interrogated by the intimidating instructors ultimately helped her to cope with her insecurity about not being liked. “They wanted to know what my weaknesses were and make me deal with them. With the job that I do, it comes with a lot of s**t thrown at you and people saying you’re talentless. You get a lot of that.

“I stick up for myself a bit more now. I’ve always worried what everyone thought of me. If someone didn’t like me in school, I hated it and thought, ‘What have I done wrong? What can I do to prove myself?’ But the Directing Staff tell you that the people in your life are the ones that matter.”

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins airs on Sunday 4 January at 9pm on Channel 4.