The Untold Truth Of Bear Grylls

British explorer Bear Grylls is best known to TV audiences for Discovery's "Man vs. Wild" (released as "Born Survivor: Bear Grylls" in his native UK), though his time on the hit survival show revealed just a small fraction of a man whose entire life has been a nonstop adventure. Born Edward Michael Grylls and nicknamed Bear by his sister at just a week old, he went on to attend top British boarding school Eton College and founded the famous institution's first mountaineering club, where he honed the skills that would give him a future in television.

Grylls has fronted many shows since then, some based on reenactments of true survival tales, others that took real people and put them into those very situations—his most famous guest being the then-serving President of the United States. Barack Obama gave the Secret Service nightmares when he joined the survivalist on a trek through the Alaskan wilderness in a special episode of "Running Wild," but as Bear found out, even getting the Commander in Chief on his side isn't enough to please everybody.

The magic of TV makes Grylls look like the ultimate survivor—and cynical viewers may be tempted to wonder what's been edited out along the way—but the truth lies somewhere in between. From his genuine scrapes with death to embarrassing leaks about his so-called survival shows, this is the untold truth of Bear Grylls.

Anyone who has seen his shows will no doubt be surprised to learn that hardman Bear Grylls was bullied in school, though fans of his work actually have those bullies to thank for toughening him up. In response to the teasing he would endure, young Grylls decided to take up karate along with a few of his friends, though they began to drop out one by one and he alone stuck at it. Three years later he got his black belt and was named the youngest member of the Karate Union of Great Britain for their trip to Japan.

"We began to study and train under Sensei Yahara, one of the most revered karate grandmasters in the world," Grylls revealed in his book, "Mud, Sweat and Tears." "Each night we slept on the floor in small wooden Japanese huts, and by day we learned how to fight—real and hard. The training was more exacting and demanding than anything I had previously encountered. If our positions or stances weren't pinpoint accurate, we would receive a firm crack from the bamboo 'jo' cane. We quickly learned not to be lazy in our stances, even when tired."

Bear Grylls' late father Sir Michael Grylls was a close ally of opinion-splitting British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and served as a member of Parliament (MP) in her Conservative government during the 1980s. The ex-military man (he was rejected from the Navy for poor eyesight but later served with the Royal Marines in Egypt and the Middle East) backed the closing of coal mines and the rollout of a smoking ban in public places, making him an unpopular figure in northern England but to his colleagues and constituents in the wealthy south, he was a good man and a loyal politician. That was until the "cash for questions" scandal broke.

The Tory party was on its way out in 1997 to make way for Tony Blair's new Labour movement, but Grylls' plans for a peaceful retirement from politics were soon shattered. A number of Thatcher's MPs were grilled (no pun intended) over payments they received for bringing questions to parliament on behalf of wealthy businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, and a report found that Poppa Bear had "seriously misled" committee members by failing to declare payments and that his behavior fell "below the standards the House is entitled to expect of its members."

After leaving school, Bear Grylls set out on his first Himalayan adventure, spending a number of months hiking in around the mountainous regions of India before eventually following in his father's footsteps.

"I spent quite some time in India before I joined the army," Grylls told The Hindustan Times. "I went out there climbing, and up in West Bengal and all around Darjeeling. I love India. We were in Calcutta for a while and then we were with the Indian Army as well." Grylls even flirted with the idea of joining the Indian Army himself at the time, but ultimately decided that he would be best served enrolling in the military at home in Great Britain.

Grylls joined the United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve in 1994 and served with 21 Regiment Special Air Service (SAS) for three years, receiving training in everything from desert and winter warfare to evasive driving, climbing, and explosives. In this time he was deployed to North Africa twice, though his second visit there almost cost him his life...

He might have only been an SAS reserve, but that doesn't mean he got to skip out on any of the dangerous stuff. Bear Grylls' second deployment to Africa ended in a terrible accident that almost claimed his life and, by rights, really should have.

"In Africa, my parachute ripped at 17,000 [feet]," the adventurer revealed to The Guardian. "I blacked out, and on landing broke my back. I spent the next 18 months in braces and plaster. I was lucky to survive, let alone walk again."

His old school buddy Mick Crosthwaite (who co-founded Eton's first mountaineering club alongside Bear and would later join him on real climbing expeditions) also thought that his friend's number was up in the aftermath of the fall, making what he has done since his recovery all the more remarkable. "I look back and think of him in the body brace after that horrific parachute fall, and it's incredible that he survived it," he told The Guardian. "Then to look at what he has achieved since then, I'd never have thought it possible."

Breaking three vertebrae after a 17,000 foot fall would be enough to put most people off heights for good, and Bear Grylls was almost no exception to that. His parachute blunder made his lifelong goal of climbing Mount Everest seem like an unrealistic pipe dream, but after wanting it for so long he just wasn't ready to give up on it.

"After breaking my back I felt that dream had been shattered and it felt out of my wildest reach," he admitted. "It had been such a dream for so long, since my late father gave me this picture of Everest that I used to keep on my bedroom wall as a kid aged eight. Climbing was where I felt natural and free and it is what also brought me close to my father."

Grylls not only lived his childhood dream when he scaled earth's highest mountain in 1998, he also made history, becoming the youngest Brit to reach the summit at age 23 and doing so less than two years after his near-fatal Africa fall. It was no walk in the park, however. In fact, Grylls very near met his end for a second time when some loose ice left him hanging on for dear life. "We were in the first stage of the Everest ascent when the ground gave way, leaving me swinging on the end of this rope, clutching at these black and glassy walls. Mick (Crosthwaite) and the two Nepalese climbers saved my life, gradually pulling me out."

Unfortunately, Bear Grylls' old friend and climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite didn't manage to reach the Everest summit despite his best efforts, though he did come away with an equally harrowing near-death story. With Grylls feeling under the weather near the end of the climb, Crosthwaite decided to seize his chance and make a shot for the summit alone, but in a cruel twist of fate his equipment cost him his prize (and very nearly his life) with the end in sight.

"Mick ran out of oxygen at 28,000 [feet], just an hour away from the summit," Grylls told The Guardian. "He had a problem with his tank and collapsed in the snow. I was ill back at base and he radioed me and said, 'Bear, I think I've got 10 minutes to live'. Mick is a man of understatements, and I'd never heard him speak like that. I screamed at him, 'Keep your eyes open.' Then the radio went dead." Members of the team were able to recover Mick before it was too late, but Grylls had to complete the trek alone.

As if two close shaves weren't enough, Bear Grylls' behavior in the years since his Everest ascent has been no less hazardous to his health. He had a near miss later that very year when a cameraman failed to stop on a descent in the Canadian Rockies, his wooden sledge slamming into the helpless presenter's legs at 45mph and sending him toppling down the mountain side like a rag doll. "In that split second I have only one realization: a one degree different course and the sledge's impact would have been with my head. Without a doubt, it would have been my last living thought."

From there he went on to sever his finger on razor sharp bamboo in the Vietnamese jungle, survive a rockfall in Yukon, a boulder-fall (slightly different, equally as deadly) in Costa Rica and a mineshaft collapse in Montana. And that's just the rock-based near-misses. He also came close to meeting his maker when he tackled a saltwater crocodile in Australia, and again when he came face to face with a 16-foot tiger shark in the Pacific.

In 2005, Bear Grylls and fellow explorer Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal broke the record for the world's highest dinner party when they flew a hot air balloon to a height of 24,262 feet and climbed down to a dinner table suspended some 40ft below, braving harsh wind chill in temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius. After enjoying a three-course meal together (they reportedly pulled out all the stops, dining on asparagus tips, duck a l'orange and fruit terrine) the daredevil duo dedicated the venture to Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth and skydived back down to ground with full bellies.

The bizarre get together was the brainchild of fellow British explorer David Hempleman-Adams (who had crossed the Atlantic in a hot air balloon just two years previous), and he called it the strangest record he had ever been a part of. "It was a fun stunt, but was at the same time very dangerous. There were potentially a lot of things that could have gone wrong."

Bear Grylls was the subject of controversy in 2008 when U.S. survival consultant Mark Weinert started talking to the British media about his time working on "Man vs. Wild," claiming that the star was a fraud. Weinert revealed that during the Desert Island episode, he personally assembled a Polynesian-style bamboo raft off camera only for Grylls to add the finishing touches and take the credit, and after shooting he claims the ex-military man left for a motel. And that wasn't the only time the show faked Grylls' whereabouts according to the whistleblower, who also let slip that Grylls spent a few nights in a luxurious lodge complete with a TV, hot tub, and internet access during the filming of the Sierra Nevada mountains episode.

"If people felt misled on how the first series was represented, I'm really sorry for that," Grylls told the BBC. "I'm the person that takes the rap for these things, even though I'm not always involved in the editing side of it, but ultimately it is me on screen."

One person who you could say was less than convinced by Bear Grylls' explanation is fellow outdoorsman Ray Mears. He responded to the luxury hotel controversy by dubbing Grylls a "showman" and a "boy scout", and while both are factually accurate (Grylls is actually the chief scout, the youngest in history), he wasn't being polite. "I think the viewer knows that if you want to really know how to take care of yourself in the wild, I'm the person to talk to," added Mears, whose opinion is so well respected that in 2010 the police actually hired him to track a cop killer at large in the UK.

The rivalry between Britain's best-known survivalists flared up like a nasty nettle rash in 2013, when Mears accused Grylls of putting the lives of his viewers at risk with his Rambo style approach to taking on the wild. "Some of the things [Grylls does] are crazy," Mears said. "Leaping off cliffs into water when you don't know what's in it? If a 15-year-old was to copy him and impale himself on a pram leaping into a canal... because they were inspired by it, I would think that was his fault."

Despite being away a lot, at home Bear Grylls is a religious man with what he describes as "a lovely quiet faith" that he shares with his family.

"...if the point is to find community and be encouraged, then I find the best church often happens with my kids," Grylls said of his approach to Christianity. "We're at home on a Sunday. I'll get out the old piano and sing a few simple kids songs and a little hymn ... That is church. We'll read a little verse. You know, 'I am holding you by your right hand.' We'll say a little prayer for each other and we're done in seven minutes. It's wonderful."

In 2016, he became the latest celebrity to talk about his time with the Alpha Course, agreeing to publicly document his experiences with the evangelistic program over the course of a whole year.

When not staying on the houseboat they have moored on the banks of London's River Thames, Bear Grylls and his family live on a remote island off the coast of Wales. It is a setting that allows Grylls to live the way he promotes in his shows, though even there he doesn't have total control.

In 2013, he found himself in hot water with the local council after erecting a huge metal slide that ended with a drop off a cliff face into the seawater below. "The slide is not for the paying public and therefore the health and safety is not for other people," Grylls said in his defense. "It's for me and the kids and friends to use when we are there. It has an element of danger to it, you do hit the water pretty hard. But do you know what? There are a lot more dangerous things around." He came in for criticism again in 2015 when he enlisted the help of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to rescue his eldest son Jesse (11 years old at the time) after he purposefully stranded him on a rocky outcrop off the island.

Grylls' 2012 bestseller "Mud, Sweat and Tears" was voted the most influential book in China that year, and it seemed only a matter of time before he attempted to crack the Chinese market with his brand of rough and tumble television. He did so in 2015 with a show called "Survivor Games," which featured a premise similar to "Mission Survive," a U.K. series in which Grylls takes eight celebrities on a two-week hike through unforgiving terrain.

Viewers complained that the show was "tasteless" and "disgusting" after Grylls asked the contestants to drink their own urine, but Grylls' success in China continued in 2017 after he invited several more Chinese celebrities to join him in the wild for one-on-one adventures, including former NBA star Yao Ming and Robin Li, one of China's richest tech moguls. The follow-up program aired under the name "Absolute Wild China."

Bear Grylls suffered a setback when ITV decided not to renew his celebrity survival show "Mission Survive," but the channel later released a statement assuring fans of the survivalist that they have "a number of projects with Bear in the pipeline." Grylls still has both the British and American versions of "The Island" to concentrate on as well as the UK kids show "Survival School," though a Radio Times interview with the presenter revealed that he is keen to lead another Presidential adventure in the wild. It's been two years since Barack Obama took part in a special episode of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls," and when asked if he would be interested in taking the most recent inhabitant of the White House on a similar trek, he issued what seemed like a challenge to Donald Trump.

"It would be amazing. Of course," Grylls said when pressed about Trump. "And, there's no doubting he's tenacious. Obama liked stepping out of his comfort zone, and that attitude is good in the wild. He told me it was one of the best days of his presidency. But I don't know... Donald Trump is a person who likes to be king and the one thing I've learnt in the wild is you're never the king. You've got to learn to put the crown down. I'm actually on the same network, NBC, as "The Apprentice." But I kind of hope he's got more important things to do than to go on an adventure with me."

The Donald has yet to reply, but we're expecting a Tweet any day now. Whether this potentially classic bit of television happens or not, it is safe to say that Grylls isn't going to be leaving our screens any time soon—it seems that his years of experience have taught him how to survive in show business just as well as he can in the wild.

Although he is best known for his survival series on television, Bear Grylls has also written and published many books. Most casual fans of Grylls are aware of his memoirs and survival guides, but he's also written a spiritual survival guide for children. In "You Vs The World: The Bear Grylls Guide to Never Giving Up," Grylls shares lessons he gleaned from his adventures. Grylls believes these lessons will give children a toolkit to help them face the challenges life sends their way.

Grylls also writes fiction. He published the "Mission Survival" series between 2008 and 2015, and a spin-off series "Beck Granger Adventure," began in 2016. In 2014, Grylls signed a million-pound deal with Orion for a series of spy novels about an ex-SAS adventurer. "This series of novels will combine the best of Bond, Bourne and Indiana Jones in one gripping series of books," Grylls told The Guardian. The first book in the series, "Ghost Flight," came out in 2015, followed by "Burning Angels" and "The Devil's Sanctuary." Grylls has also written fiction for children. In 2017, the first of 12 books in the "Bear Grylls Adventure" series came out.

Grylls returned to non-fiction in 2019 with "Soul Fuel: A Daily Devotional" sharing how his spiritual faith has contributed to his accomplishments and helped him through tough times. In 2022, Grylls published the award-winning "Mind Fuel: Simple Ways to Build Mental Resilience Every Day," sharing how he prioritizes his mental health.

Bear Grylls has made philanthropy a priority and has been involved with many charities. He uses his expeditions to raise money for those charities. His 2003 Arctic expedition, which he wrote about in the book "Facing the Frozen Ocean," raised funds for The Prince's Trust. In 2005, Grylls led the first team to para-glide over the jungle plateau of Angel Falls, Venezuela, raising funds for the charity Hope and Homes For Children. "I'm a passionate believer in Global Angels as one of the most effective ways of reaching the world's most needy children," Grylls said in a statement. "They were the beneficiary of my epic Everest attempt in 2007 [...] we raised $1 million to provide safe water, food, and education for vulnerable children in Africa."

Not all of his charity work is for children. Grylls has also raised money for endangered wildlife. Grylls showed his support for the Tusk Rhino Trail by making a video encouraging people to support Tusk's conservation efforts against poachers killing rhinos in Africa. Grylls has also donated money to Polar Bears International. "Stabilizing our climate is one of the most important challenges humanity faces," Grylls wrote in a statement. "I am particularly concerned about the future of polar bears and want to make sure that my children and their children will have the opportunity to see wild polar bears for themselves—and not through the pages of history books." Grylls Survival Race also raises money for charity.

Bear Grylls was a vocal opponent of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and publicly announced his intention to vote to remain in the EU. Grylls also campaigned for the Remain campaign on social media, hoping others would do the same. The adventurer took to Instagram to share his feelings about Brexit with his followers a few days before the United Kingdom voted on the proposal. "I am proud to represent a number of different & very inspiring organisations, but on this issue, I speak from the heart and only for myself [...] At such a time for the UK to retreat, run, and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind," Grylls wrote.

In his Instagram statement, Grylls acknowledged that Europe had some flaws, but that history has shown that bringing communities together allows everyone to achieve greater things. "I guess I believe that to help make the future of the world a better place then that future has to be about partnership [...] This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe."

Despite Grylls' efforts to convince the UK to remain in the European Union, Brexit was passed, and the UK left the EU following the election of Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Bear Grylls partnered with Merlin Entertainments to give families a place to safely push beyond their comfort zone at Bear Grylls Adventure at their Birmingham theme park. There are packages for schools and groups to visit the facility. "Bear is very much about championing the adventure lifestyle: experiencing something new, pushing the boundaries, stepping out of your comfort zone," Marc Bell, a business development director for Merlin Magic Making Division, Blooloop.

Bear Grylls Adventure opened in 2018 and caters to thrill-seekers who want to rock climb, use a ropes course, or a skydiving simulator. Visitors can also snorkel or dive with sharks in this enormous facility. There are escape rooms and an Assault Course. "Bear has a long association with the Royal Marines," Bell told Blooloop. "He was involved in the conceptual design of the attraction [...] It's a timed activity where guests pit themselves against all the different challenges on the assault course." You can also do target practice, archery, and axe throwing at the Target Academy.

Merlin Attractions is interested in expanding the Bear Grylls Adventure by bringing it to other locations around the world. "The BGA park is all about empowering people through experiencing some amazing adventures in a safe, fun environment," Grylls told Blooloop. "My hope is that people leave the park feeling that little bit braver, a little more ambitious and that, in turn, they go on to do other fun adventures."

Bear Grylls contracted COVID-19 early in the pandemic. "I was like, 'Wow! This is really wiping me out. I've been going a month and I'm still rubbish,'" Grylls told The Guardian. Despite his illness and challenges with pandemic lockdowns, Grylls was able to return to work. "It was miraculous that we were able to finish," Grylls told The Guardian. "We were filming in the hottest red zone of northern Italy... We had a very small team there. Everything was shut down, and we got into the mountains and did it."

Returning to work was a welcome distraction for Grylls, although he recognized everyone wasn't so lucky and the pandemic was difficult for everyone. Still, Grylls expressed his hope that the world would become more unified after experiencing the pandemic. He also stated his optimism that the pandemic would encourage others to hold tight to their friends and loved ones to get through difficult times. "That's the key lesson from this time. You've got to adapt, use ingenuity – and know that the storm won't last forever," Grylls said.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Grylls told CNBC that he believes it has never been a more difficult time to be a young person, while promoting his new organization, Becoming X. Grylls hopes Becoming X will teach young people what it takes to succeed, by sharing the stories of icons in arts, entertainment, sports, politics, and business spheres.

In 2023, the documentary "War Zone: Bear Grylls meets President Zelenskyy" was released, showing Grylls traveling with a film crew to the Ukraine to interview President Zelenskyy. During the brief interview between Grylls and Zelenskyy, the two men walk the war-torn streets of Kyiv. Although the interview was characterized as "chemistry-free" by The Guardian, Grylls also interviews Ukrainian locals in Kyiv, who bravely go about their daily lives while grieving lost loved ones.

Grylls was interviewed on "The Project" about meeting Zelensky and filming in an active war zone. "For me, this is a real privilege to get a chance to do this," Grylls said on "The Project." Grylls added, "It's a country at war, and you really feel it. I mean, from the minute you go across that border you, you know, you're really aware of it. Yeah. The curfews, blackouts, and soldiers everywhere. It's under martial law."

When asked if he had second thoughts about filming in an active war zone, Grylls said, "Yeah, definitely. I was definitely apprehensive. You know it's been a while since I was a soldier. It was slightly harder to find crew for this journey, you know, but most of the guys stepped up, and it felt like the right thing to do." The documentary was filmed for one week, but the people Grylls met in Kyiv are still there, fighting against Russian aggression and for Ukrainian independence.