Martin Kemp says ‘it was mounting up’ as wife Shirlie turned to him for help after ‘trauma’

I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! star Martin Kemp found himself having to support wife Shirlie after a ‘traumatic’ tour when she was a backing singer for pop band Wham!.

Matt Jackson Trendswatch Content Editor

08:00, 22 Nov 2025

Martin Kemp says his costs were ‘mounting up’ after his wife Shirlie had a ‘traumatic’ tour(Image: Jeff Spicer, Getty Images)

Martin Kemp’s wife Shirlie turned to him for help after a “traumatic” trip to China. Shirlie performed in Beijing and Guangzhou as a backing singer for Wham! in 1985.

The two performances were seen as a culturally significant moment for China as Wham! became the first Western pop band to perform in the country. Shirlie however describes visiting China as “the most shocking experience”.

In particular she recalls being taken aback by the Great Wall of China. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people died building the wall, leading to it being known as “the longest cemetery on Earth”.

On Travel Secrets The Podcast, Shirlie said: “Everything just upset me in a way, I thought, ‘Who built this wall?’ The amount of lives that have been lost building…it was a culture that I was really saddened by.”

Martin explained he soon found the costs of the trip “mounting up” as he found himself paying for his wife to have therapy. He added: “When Shirlie came back from China, it cost me a fortune in therapy. It’s the truth.”

Shirlie, back right, toured to China with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s Wham!(Image: Michael Putland/Getty Images)

Shirlie went on to say that “something else that was quite traumatic” happened on the trip, leading her to plead for another trip away. She said: “I was like, ‘Martin, take me to Florida, I need to go somewhere brand spanking new’.”

Martin joked: “It wasn’t just the therapy, it was the trip to Florida as well. It was all mounting up.”

The pair found themselves heading stateside for a tennis camp after Shirlie returned home. She says it helped her “readjust” to life after the 10-day trip with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

The tour was documented in Wham! in China: Foreign Skies, in which George says the Chinese Minister for Culture put out a warning for fans not to copy his more suggestive dance moves.

Wham! were the first Western pop band to perform in China(Image: 1985 Getty Images)

He said: “He basically advised the youth that were there to go to the concert and watch it but not learn from it, which seems a pretty ridiculous thing to say.”

The band’s tour was also marred by an incident involving one of their backing musicians on a plane. On the flight to their second show, Portuguese trumpeter Raul D’Oliveira reportedly suffered a psychotic episode, with witnesses claiming he stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife as Helen “Pepsi” DeMacque and Shirlie stood screaming nearby.

Officials said he then forced his way into the cockpit, only to be subdued by the pilot who made an emergency nosedive. Speaking to the Independent, backing singer Janet Mooney said: “It was very traumatic for all of us, mostly because we had to land a couple of times in bad weather and that was not great, and of course something not very nice was happening to a friend of ours.”

Shirlie says she hasn’t returned to China since Wham!’s tour. Martin meanwhile is currently in Australia competing in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.

The hit show returns to ITV One at 9.05pm tonight (November 22). A host of famous faces, including comedian Ruby Wax, Jack Osbourne, model Kelly Brook, and social media star Angry Ginge are vying to be crowned king or queen of the jungle.