Shirlie Kemp has opened up about a ‘scary time’ that she and her family narrowly avoided thanks to a plea from her son Roman Kemp
Matt Jackson Trendswatch Content Editor
12:22, 20 Nov 2025
Shirlie Kemp says a plea from son Roman helped the family avoid a ‘scary time’(Image: Channel 4 )
Shirlie Kemp has disclosed how her son Roman’s request prevented the family from being caught up in a catastrophic natural disaster. The revelation came as the former Wham! backing vocalist, 63, and her husband Martin, Spandau Ballet’s bassist, were deciding on a family holiday destination back in 2004.
The mother-of-two explained she had hoped to embark on a “very spiritual journey” at that time. Yet Roman, The One Show host, who was merely nine years old then, persuaded the family to visit The Bahamas so he could experience a water slide passing through shark-infested waters.
During an appearance on Travel Secrets the Podcast, Shirlie explained that Roman’s request led the family to choose a Caribbean break rather than travelling to Thailand in 2004, when the Boxing Day tsunami wreaked havoc across the Indian Ocean. Approximately 200,000 people lost their lives across 14 nations, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
On the podcast, Shirlie recalled: “We had a scary time that Roman wanted to go to the Bahamas, to the Atlantis Hotel, and we did not want to go there. And he’s going, ‘Please can we go, you can go through a slide and go through sharks’, and he was obsessed.”
“I wanted to go to Thailand and have a very spiritual journey and have a holiday in that tone. So Roman got his way and that was the year that the tsunami happened in Thailand. I’ve never been so grateful to listen to your children. I went down the slide, it was horrendous, he’s like, ‘Come on mum, come again’.”
Roman Kemp wanted his parents to take him to The Bahamas(Image: Jeff Spicer, Getty Images)
The couple’s holiday adventures weren’t without peril on other occasions either. Martin described a frightening incident when Shirlie overturned a Mini whilst competing in a rally across a rice paddy during a three-week Vietnamese trip.
The accident resulted in Martin being hospitalised after becoming trapped in the vehicle. He said: “We’re on this big rally within a rally and we’re on this big rally and you have to go through these rice paddies. Shirlie’s driving and I’m navigating. It’s kind of a time trial and you’ve got to put your foot down, because it’s a race. We start off and Shirlie puts her foot down.
“We’re in this old Mini with a roll bar and someone said to me before we left, ‘If you crash, never hold on to the roll bar, that’s the last thing you want to do because you can get trapped’. First thing we do, Shirlie puts her toe down, we go into the rice paddy, and the whole car turns onto its head, we’re upside down in the rice paddy.
Martin and Shirlie share two children together(Image: LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Luckily there’s no water in the rice paddy, but what do I do? Grab onto the roll bar. So my hand has been caught between the roof and the roll bar. So Shirlie has unbuckled herself and got out. I’m stuck inside this car that has just been filled with petrol, glass has gone, and I’m hanging there trapped, upside down in the middle of nowhere.”
Martin was concerned he might “lose my fingers or something” after observing his hand had “gone blue”. Meanwhile, Shirlie recalls “screaming” before two rice field workers spotted the incident.
They successfully freed the ex-soap actor and transported him to a medical facility that was “like a little shack”.
Shirlie explained the vehicle overturned because Martin’s knee “knocked” the sat-nav, preventing it from alerting her to an approaching sharp corner. She continued: “As I’m going so fast there’s a right bend with a huge tree in front of us and I’m thinking if I don’t we’re going to have to roll this car because I’m going too fast. That tree will kill us.”
Fortunately for Martin, sensation gradually came back to his hand “a few weeks later”. The Gold singer is presently appearing in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
on ITV One.
He returns to television tonight (November 20) at 9pm alongside fellow contestants including Angry Ginge, Kelly Brook, and rapper Aitch.
Roman, on the other hand, is taking part in Celebrity Race Across the World with his sister Harleymoon Kemp. Tonight’s episode sees the brother-sister duo battling for the lead against Anita Rani as they race down the coastline to reach Honduras via the ocean.
Celebrity Race Across the World broadcasts on BBC Two at 8pm.
