Bear Grylls: 'My biggest challenge is surviving cocktail parties'

Alistair Foster4 May 2016
The Weekender

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As a survival expert and former member of the SAS, it appears nothing much ruffles the feathers of Bear Grylls.

Having climbed Everest, broken his shoulder kite-skiing across Antarctica and crossed the Atlantic in a rubber dinghy, the adventurer has admitted he does have one fear — making small talk with strangers at parties.

Grylls, 41, told the Standard: “I’m very human and very normal like that. I’ve got a long list of things I’m scared of, from cocktail parties to jumping out of aeroplanes having broken my back [after the parachute failed].

“But I’ve learned that life isn’t about running away from our fears, and the best way of dealing with them is through the middle.

Bear Grylls Mission Survive 2016: meet the celebrities

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"Cocktail parties are harder for me than jumping out of a plane. I struggle sometimes with a room full of people I don’t know clinking glasses with small talk. I’m trying to get better, but I struggle.”

He also confessed that to his family his adventures are simply a part of life and his three sons are sick of his motivational patter, telling him to “stop banging on”.

Grylls, his wife Shara and boys Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry, split their time between their houseboat on the Thames in south-west London and their island home off the Welsh coast.

He added: “Shara is amazing. She’s the quiet hero. I’ll come back from an expedition and be saying, ‘Oh it was 45C,’ or, ‘It was so cold that my pee froze before it hit the floor,’ and she’ll just say, ‘Oh well, the kids need picking up and the washing machine’s bust.’

“They’re three young boys so they love this stuff [survivalist pursuits] naturally. They probably think their dad’s a bit embarrassing.

"I think for about two weeks they thought it was a bit cool, but nowadays they always say, ‘Papa, you’re always banging on about never giving up.’ ”

Grylls is bringing his first live show, Endeavour: Your Adventure Awaits, to Wembley Arena in October. It will share inspiring true stories of survival.

“I know this will inspire people. It’s been a monster to put together — it’s taken two years as we wanted to do it big and get it right.

“The way we’ve done it is like nothing that’s ever been done — we worked with a lot of the Top Gear and Cirque du Soleil choreo- graphers.

"There’s aerial acrobatic stuff and 3D live mapping technology...it makes it feel like the arena’s coming alive.”

Tickets from beargryllslive.com

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