As the black hood was ripped from Georgia Harrison’s head, she stood on a New Zealand mountain and stared into the piercing eyes of a trained assassin. But instead of trembling in her new military boots, she simply smiled. It’s not what ex-special forces soldier Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham had expected from the petite beauty, but that’s why Georgia had signed up for TV’s toughest show, Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. She had one mission: to shake off her victim status.
Just four months before she began the gruelling course, Georgia had seen her ex-boyfriend, fellow reality star Stephen Bear, jailed for 21 months, ending three years of hell. The pair began dating after meeting on reality show The Challenge in 2019. But Georgia’s world came crashing down in 2020 when he secretly recorded them having sex on his home CCTV system and sold the footage online. An intimate moment with someone she thought she could trust spread like wildfire across the internet.
“It went so incredibly viral, my mailman probably saw it,” Georgia says. “I felt like I was letting myself down and letting my family down, I should have seen it coming. How could I have been so stupid?” The humiliation left her paralyzed with fear. “I barely left the house,” she confesses. “When I did, it was hard not to panic. I just wanted to be with my closest friends.”
Georgia Harrison’s world came crashing down in 2020 when Stephen Bear secretly recorded their sex on his home camera system
But instead of accepting the shame and telling herself it was her fault for trusting Bear, Georgia made the bold decision to press charges and surrender her anonymity to draw attention to what many victims suffer. And she won. He was found guilty, jailed and ordered to pay her more than £200,000 in compensation.
Not only that, Georgia showed her courage when she campaigned to change the law. Before she won the case, prosecutors in these cases had to show intent to cause harm, which was incredibly difficult for a victim to prove. Now, sharing intimate images without consent, regardless of motive, is a criminal offense.
Now she wants to put it all behind her and taking on Celebrity SAS was a step forward. ‘People say SAS can turn trauma into power,’ says Georgia, who shot to fame a decade ago with The Only Way Is Essex. ‘It can be a powerful experience to face what you’ve been through in the past.
“I started to feel like I was more than just that situation. I was tired of being seen as a victim. We can’t control what happens on our journey, but if we use our mental strength, we can overcome a lot,” she says. “I want to inspire people to realize that, especially young women.”
Georgia joins an eclectic mix of famous faces including journalist Rachel Johnson, actor John Barrowman and former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw. Under the watchful eye of the directorial staff – former SBS operators Jason Fox and Chris Oliver, ex-Recon Marine Rudy Reyes and Mark Billingham – the celebrities go through a series of challenges. Georgia was determined not to let herself down.
Georgia joins an eclectic mix of famous faces including journalist Rachel Johnson Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins
“These men have risked their lives and done unspeakable things for our country. The more respect you have for them, the more you want to do the course as well as you can and impress them.”
And she did so in a brutal boxing match against Boris Johnson’s sister. Georgia had overheard Rachel, 59, bragging that she wasn’t worried about fighting as she was the first girl at an all-boys school, but despite her diminutive stature, Georgia landed plenty of head-scratching punches before being declared the winner.
“I was proud of myself,” she says. “She was pretty cocky about the fight, so I was like, ‘Look, she wants to get punched in the face!’ Rachel thinks I broke her nose, but she also said her nose was already broken. So I’m not sure. I’m not going to let her show it off!”
It’s not all success, though, and Georgia fared poorly in one of the most iconic tasks, which sees celebrities fall backwards from a high platform into the water below. ‘We had to swim to the pontoon first, because if you hit the water directly at that temperature you can have a heart attack.
Goergia with Ashley Cain and ex Stephen Bear in TV show The Challenge: War Of The Worlds
“I blew it. Then I had to stand there for another 30 minutes, getting colder and colder, watching everyone else succeed at what I had just epically failed at.”
Georgia has decided not to reveal the rest of the journey, but we can say that competing on Celebrity SAS has swept away her victimhood and she will take that fighting spirit with her into her next challenge.
Not content with changing the law, she is back at it, taking on web giants and even banks that profit from the abuse of revenge porn victims. Her mission is being filmed for a new ITV documentary.
“There’s still a loophole,” she explains. “Even if you win your case, your footage is still not technically illegal. A lot of these big companies can still host it on their platforms. I’m campaigning to change that. I’ve been in and out of parliament all year, but I’m confident it’s going to happen.”
If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that Georgia is not a woman to be messed with. And now that she’s got a little SAS grit, she’s unstoppable.
- Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, Sunday, 9pm, Channel 4
