Gladiators star Jamie Bigg, also known as Giant, has said he will leave the BBC show at the end of the series after facing a \u201cchoice\u201d that did not align with his values.<\/p>\n
The former professional bodybuilder and firefighter has appeared on the entertainment show \u2013 which sees top athletes take on contestants as they tackle physical challenges \u2013 for three seasons but revealed he will not return for series four.<\/p>\n
The Gladiator said it was one of the \u201cgreatest honours\u201d of his life to compete in the arena, adding that his departure was not a decision he made.<\/p>\n
Announcing the news on Instagram on Friday, Bigg said: \u201cTo my Gladiator family. I want to tell you all that I won\u2019t be coming back for season 4 of the TV show.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a Gladiator has been one of the greatest honours of my life. Stepping into that arena, hearing the crowd, representing strength, resilience and being a role model\u2026 that\u2019s something I\u2019ll carry with me forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do want to make clear is this wasn\u2019t a decision I made to step away. I was faced with a choice that didn\u2019t align with my values.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you know me, you know this\u2026 I stand by my people and I stand by what I believe in. That\u2019s what being a role model means to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of everything I gave to the show and grateful for every single person who supported me along the way. This isn\u2019t the end. It\u2019s just the beginning. Stay strong. Stand tall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to being a Gladiator, he was the tallest professional bodybuilder in the world at 6ft 5in and consumed up to 10,000 calories a day.<\/p>\n
A Gladiators spokesperson said: \u201cAfter three formidable series, Giant is leaving Gladiators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like to thank him for everything he has contributed to the show and wish him well for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gladiators star Jamie Bigg, also known as Giant, has said he will leave the BBC show at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-415308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}