British adventurer and survival enthusiast Bear Grylls is no stranger to the demands of raising a family while navigating a busy career.
During a recent appearance on the “High Performance” podcast, Grylls, 50, discussed the challenges he faced after rising to fame in 2006 with his breakout role on the television show “Man vs. Wild.”
The series, which aired for seven seasons, chronicled Grylls’s efforts to survive in some of the world’s most remote and inhospitable locations.
“You got to dig deep, you got to work hard, you got to do the favors when the boss asks, you got to go the extra mile,” he said.
“And the first thing that often suffers is our home life, and I’ve definitely been on the wrong end of that in the early years of our TV shows, where I was just away all the time.”
Grylls married his wife, Shara Grylls, in 2000, six years before finding fame on the small screen. The couple went on to welcome three sons—Jesse, Marmaduke, and Huckleberry—in 2003, 2006, and 2009, respectively.
Recalling the early years of his television career, Grylls noted that he wasn’t “brilliantly paid.”
“Shara and me were just starting a family, young kids, and it’s like, we didn’t own the shows, we had no control over it,” he said.
‘Protect Your Family’
Grylls said he decided to “take a few risks” to ease the toll his career had on his family, including stepping away from his role on the Discovery Channel’s popular survival show.“At the end, [I] didn’t want to resign with them. A bit of a battle, but I sort of said: ‘No, I want to do it differently. I want to make our own show,’” Grylls recounted.
Two years later, the television personality launched his own series, “Running Wild With Bear Grylls,” on NBC. He went on to produce and star in a slew of other shows, including “The Island,” “You vs. Wild,” “World’s Toughest Race,” and “Into the Wild.”
“You realize nobody’s got your back. You got to have your own back. You got to protect your family,” Grylls said.
“So family first became the mantra. I was then around for the boys from that young age onwards, and it’s the one decision I’m so proud of ... we could have been ‘x’ percent more successful or more this or more that—but I chose the family.”
Grylls, a former British Special Forces soldier, went on to note that his family was his “only wealth” in life.
“Our wealth in life can be measured in the quality of our relationships,” he said.
“That’s the real success, isn’t it? I mean, if you’re a billionaire on your deathbed and your family and your friends all hate you, can you really say that’s successful?”
In addition to his work on the screen, the bestselling author has written a variety of adventure books, including his 2011 autobiography “Mud, Sweat, and Tears” and his fictional children’s series “Mission Survival.”
Grylls is now set to star in the new competition reality show “Celebrity Bear Hunt,” hosted by British television presenter Holly Willoughby.
Premiering on Netflix on Feb. 5, the show features a dozen celebrities, including Spice Girls singer Mel B, former tennis player Boris Becker, and model Lottie Moss, who are “hunted” by Grylls in the wilds of Central America.
“Anyone caught by Bear will be in danger of elimination. Expect the unexpected.”
