Peru Two drug mule Michaella McCollum insists she's changed ahead of Celeb SAS challenge

If there is one women who might be equipped to take on the toughness of an SAS challenge, it is Michaella McCollum. It’s been more than a decade since drug mule Michaella made headlines as one half of the so-called Peru Two.

On 6 August 2013, Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. Their luggage contained £1.5m worth of cocaine.

Michaella had been convinced to attempt to smuggle the drugs from Peru to Spain by a man she met in Ibiza. But it was a decision that would see her go on to spend three years behind bars in one of South America’s toughest prisons before being granted early release. Her interview comes after Channel 4 breaks silence after Gogglebox couple suddenly dumped from show.

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Looking back, Michaela admits that having messed up when she went to jail for drug smuggling left her so terrified of making another mistake she became so cautious and stuck in her ways.

Signing up to Channel 4’s SAS was her way of giving her a push to take back control of her life.

“I feel like in my younger days, I made lots of mistakes, so then I was really cautious of doing things, because I didn't want to mess up again. I didn't want to mess up, I didn't want to make any more mistakes.

"But we can't live life like that, because we're always going to make mistakes, we're always going to make bad choices, obviously not as bad a choice as I made previously, but it's okay to make a mistake.

“I had got to the point where I was just refusing to do a lot of things because I was scared. What if I mess it up? What if I take this job and it doesn't work out? What if I move to this place and it doesn’t work out? I was just a little bit afraid of making those decisions. I felt stuck. So I guess that was the main thing for me, to try and learn to overcome that.

“I was at the point in my life where I was just stuck in my comfort zone, and I thought this is a good way to break those barriers and do the things that scare me, and maybe that will help me in the future with decisions and just different things in life.”

Now 32, she is stepping back into the spotlight in the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, alongside the likes of Rebecca Loos and Conor Benn.

The celebs take part in the most gruelling phase of Special Forces selection, directed through by an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers including Chief Instructor Billy Billingham.

First she had to learn to swim before heading onto the show, then face a grilling from the SAS team and even fight her co-stars and take on a range of other challenges.

Michaela knows she will always be known as one half of the Peru Two but Michaela hopes being on the Channel 4 series will show people a different side to her.

She told the Mirror: “It's so easy to sit at home and judge somebody when somebody's whole life is tearing apart. So I feel like it was important, I guess, when I got there, to show that I'm not just that girl who went to prison.

"I'm a mother, I'm a human, I make mistakes. This is what we are and this is what we're here to do. So I hope it does change the public's opinion, but if it doesn't, it doesn't.

“I did that show for me, I wanted to improve myself and push myself. There's gonna be people that will always have their opinion. There'll be people that will always judge me for that(smuggling). But I'm not just that.

"I hope it kind of, softens the image so people get to see me in a different light.”

And having spent three years in the notorious Ancon 2 jail Michaella endured horrendous living conditions, physical violence, and while battling the legal system and learning to survive in an environment that was as hostile as it was brutal.

Following her release in 2015, Michaella sought to rebuild her life in Northern Ireland, earning a degree in International Business Management from Ulster University in 2023. She also found a new passion for fitness, using it as a tool to reclaim control over her life.

She regularly delivers motivational talks about personal transformation, overcoming adversity, and the dangers of coercion. Her experiences, both in prison and in navigating the challenges that followed, have made her a sought-after speaker for law enforcement and community groups.

Away from the show She’s a single mum to two twin boys and Michaela says they are going to be shocked when they see what she did on the course. She can’t wait for them to see her in action and realise that behind the glam exterior is a tough cookie.

She said: “I spoke to my kids about the show, and they didn't want me to do the show, because they were like, ‘You're going to die.'

“I'm like, ‘I'm not going to die’ And like, ‘No, because this is really bad, and you're going to break your nails.’ I'm like, ‘It's fine. I can break my nails. It's okay’.

“But I think I had these conversations with them, obviously they're only seven, but I had these conversations with them after. So I think when it does air, to show them that, because obviously they don't see that side of me, to show that I am capable of doing that, and that it's okay.

"They’ll think it's super cool to jump off a speedboat onto a helicopter. They’re going to see that mum is an action hero! I'm a single mum, so it's just me in my household. They always say mum doesn't do boy stuff but I hope when they see this and what I did I’ll be like, "Yeah, you see me? I can do what boys do too.”

Asked if she has learned anything from the experience, on top of all the other experiences she had had in life, she added: “I mean, they're incredibly strong, resilient people. You don't normally meet people that are faced with the challenges and the things that they have to do.

"And I guess when you listen to them and you talk to them, you realise that the things that you worry about in your everyday life really don't freaking matter. The things we're stressing about every day, they don't matter when you have people like them in the Army or SAS. What they have to go through when they are in times of war, you don't really understand that.”

* Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins can be streamed or watched live every Sunday and Monday from 9pm on Channel 4, starting August 3.