Swindon-born celebrity Melinda Messenger faced a shock exit in the latest episode of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

In the opening minutes of the reality show’s third episode, the ex-special forces members overseeing the gruelling training course decided that the former glamour model and TV presenter should not face the rest of the challenges.

The 15 remaining recruits heard that, despite completing two phases of the course, not all of them had been deemed “capable of going forward”.

Directing staff and ex-special forces member Foxy said: “At the beginning of each phase, we ramp it up. In the special forces, there is no room or time for carrying people.

“If we think recruits are too weak, we will get rid of them, we will cull them. It is for their own safety.”

Melinda, and singer Michelle Heaton, had to hand in their armbands and leave immediately.

The show featured footage of an interview recorded before the start of the series edited alongside Melinda’s last moments on-screen.

The 51-year-old said: “Doing this, I can’t imagine that I would not find out things that I didn’t know.

“You know, even if it’s that I really am hopeless and helpless and can’t do any of it, at least I’ll be able to go ‘Well, you had the courage to give it a go, you had the courage to show up’.”

The first episode focused on hand-to-hand combat in the jungles of Vietnam, where contestants were put through their paces in monsoon conditions, before being asked to take a terrifying walk across a thin wire suspended far from the ground.

They were then introduced to 'milling' - a form of combat where two contestants constantly punch each other until told to stop.

In the second episode, they had to search a hut for an important item while being exposed to tear gas.

In the same episode, the celebs roleplayed kidnapping scenarios, where Melinda was tied up and taken away as one of the two ‘victims’ while 13 other famous faces were tasked with retrieving her in a high-risk rescue mission.

The team successfully found Melinda but almost left her behind, which led to a telling-off during the debriefing.

Before the series aired, Melinda revealed that she had fallen in love with the reality show’s medic Dr Raj Joshi while filming the series, and the pair are now engaged.