Bear Grylls: 'When this war ends, there will be millions of people with physical and mental injuries, it will last at least two generations&# 39; Photo: Paul Grover.
In general, Bear Grylls does not often experience nervousness at work. Sometimes a bit of stage fright, yes.
Perhaps a little dumbfounded for a second or two. (Although we wouldn't all be like that if we were in charge of keeping Barack Obama or Narendra Modi alive in the desert.)
Television usually has nervous guests. After all, it was they who agreed to step out of their comfort zone and into it.
Everything changed in November last year. President Volodymyr Zelensky personally invited Grylls to visit war-torn Ukraine. The idea was that he would film the interview in Kiev, perhaps seeing a bit of the besieged city while he was there.
“People put a lot of pressure on me not to go to Ukraine, at different levels. «, — says Grylls. «But I think that you should participate, you should listen and communicate. When you communicate and understand someone's heart, it makes sense.»
Grylls, a former SWAT soldier, has been fascinated by the atmosphere on the ground, as well as the man he has watched calmly move things out of his bunker since February 2022. At first, he was most curious about how many green sweaters Zelensky had — but my wife told me that I couldn't go all this way just to ask about it,» so he just tried to get to know the man.
He took him a bar of chocolate; and, to the chagrin of security, offered to go out for some fresh air.“And I got along with him, it’s hard not to get along with him. He's a regular guy, not a politician, and he's a father [Grylls has three sons, Jesse, 20, Marmaduke, 17, and Huckleberry, 14, by his wife Shara]. And he is under pressure to face the weight of the world.»
Bear Grylls was personally invited by President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the war-torn Ukraine. Photo: Bart Corpe
The meeting resulted in a Channel 4 program simply titled Warzone: Bear Grylls Meets President Zelensky, which aired in March. a private club in Belgravia — but only for a few minutes, six to be exact, since Grylls was clearly a busy man.
Grylls, who still sports the unmistakable porn star mustache, is going gray a bit, but at 49 he still has the vibe of a whippet. He is about to launch the Ukrainian division of BecomingX, an online learning platform he co-founded in 2019 with former Accenture senior director Paul Gurney.
The idea of the venture is to provide career advice, digital skills and personal development courses for Ukrainian children and adults affected by the war. To offer something that is not found in conventional education — practical skills for those who are not so focused on learning.
«Life skills. Things that really matter to people. How to build a great resume, how to develop a winning mindset, how to be a great team player, how to deal with social media, how to deal with bullies, how to dream big, how to deal with setbacks, how to overcome adversity. And then a whole million practical skills,» Grylls says enthusiastically.
«People think that all this happens in Bakhmut,» he says. «But in this country there is no person whose life somehow not affected by this war.
“Teachers work hard but are understaffed, often underpaid, under pressure and doing heroic work. But I think the world has changed so fast that it's becoming more and more competitive for young people. Young people are more and more worried. BecomingX talks about all this.»
Ukrainian refugees Natalia Sushko and Victoria Gorbachevskaya perform at the BecomingX Ukraine event attended by Bear Grylls Credit & Copyright: Paul Grover
Grylls mentions being inspired by a recent story about four children who survived for over a week in the dense Colombian jungle using local knowledge and the sheer determination to cling until rescuers found them.
«Incredible.» . This is an unconventional education, right? You look at it and the conclusion is that kids are incredible, young people are incredible. Sometimes you just need to equip them with effective tools and they will change the world for the better every time. It was a story of friendship and resilience.”
Grylls is a TV personality and head scout among many others who loves to keep busy. He's about to start another Running Wild series with Benedict Cumberbatch, Rita Ora and Bradley Cooper. “Bradley is completely immersed in this business,” says Grylls. “It just goes to show that no matter how rich or famous you are, adventure does what only they can do to people. It's a state of mind.»
But now he feels he has «a physical and emotional connection [to Ukraine] that has just been born.»
He became an ambassador for United24, a charity President Zelensky Foundation, and gratefully accepts an award from his new friend on stage.
«I'd love to go back,» he says firmly, though frightened when «every day your phone signals incoming missiles.» during his trip last year.
“This is just the beginning. When this war is over, there will be millions of people with physical and mental injuries, it will last at least two generations. And people want to know how to make a difference.”
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