Shirlie Kemp has shared a harrowing near-miss from 2004 when her then nine-year-old son, Roman Kemp, unwittingly saved the family from being caught in one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent history. The former Wham! backing vocalist and her husband, Martin Kemp, bassist of Spandau Ballet, were planning a family holiday when young Roman’s insistence changed their destination — a decision that ultimately saved their lives.
At the time, Shirlie had envisioned a “very spiritual journey” to Thailand, a location soon devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami that claimed nearly 200,000 lives across 14 countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. However, Roman, now a host on The One Show, was captivated by the idea of visiting the Bahamas to experience the famous water slide at Atlantis Hotel that passes through shark-infested waters.
Appearing on Travel Secrets 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.”
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She continued, “I wanted to go to Thailand for a spiritual holiday. But Roman got his way, and that was the year the tsunami happened in Thailand. I’ve never been so grateful to listen to your children. I went down the slide — it was horrendous — and he kept saying, ‘Come on, mum, come again.’”
The family’s travel adventures didn’t stop with close calls. Martin shared a chilling incident during a rally in Vietnam, where Shirlie accidentally overturned their Mini Cooper in a rice paddy. Martin was trapped upside down in the vehicle, his hand caught painfully between the roll bar and the roof.
“We were racing through rice paddies, and Shirlie was driving fast. I was navigating,” Martin explained. “When we crashed, I grabbed the roll bar, even though I was told never to, and got trapped. The car flipped upside down. Shirlie got out and started screaming for help. Two rice field workers found us and helped get me to a medical hut.”
Shirlie revealed the accident happened because Martin accidentally knocked the sat-nav, preventing her from being alerted about a sharp upcoming corner. “I was going so fast I thought the only option was to roll the car because a huge tree was ahead,” she said.
Fortunately, Martin eventually regained sensation in his hand weeks later. Today, Shirlie is starring on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, while Roman competes with his sister Harleymoon on BBC Two’s Celebrity Race Across the World.