Quite the U-turn! Why The Summit star Warren Furman turned his back on the spotlight and found God after Gladiators
He also had a short-lived engagement to Katie Price along the way…
The Summit star Warren Furman has exactly what it takes to make it to the top of Ben Shephard’s mountain – he was once better known as Gladiators star Ace.
The new series, which kicked off on ITV this week (February 10), sees 14 strangers attempt to trek across unforgiving mountain terrain in New Zealand. They’ll face both physical trials and strategic decisions as they race to reach the summit within 14 days. At stake? A share of a cash prize worth up to £200,000.
But Warren is used to racing uphill, quite literally on the travelator during his Gladiators days! At 53, the father of two is the oldest competitor in the gruelling challenge. He’s also the only vicar…
The Summit star Warren Furman – from Gladiators to the priesthood
Bodybuilder Warren became a household name in the 1990s when he appeared as Ace on Gladiators. He was on the show for four series. He said previously that he found the celebrity culture around Gladiators “destructive”.
“I went from literally having nothing to everything overnight and I became a celebrity. You become public property and I wasn’t ready for that at all,” he told The Sun recently.
He also told Premier Christian Radio of his decision to turn his back on the spotlight: “Newspapers and magazines were offering me money on a daily basis for photos and stories. Suddenly everything is up for grabs. That does something to your soul in the end. Life was a party, but I was picking up a lot of destructive habits.”
Katie Price engagement and her ‘path to death and destruction’
It was during his time on the show that he met Katie Price, then better known as her glamour modelling alter ego, Jordan. They met in 1996 and got engaged in 1997. However, they ended their relationship in 1999.
Over the years, Warren has spoken out about the romance. “We both came from working-class families and were hustling for a few quid. We were put into a lifestyle where people had everything and we were absolutely petrified we would lose it. So we made some dubious decisions together. It jeopardised our relationship,” he said previously.
Katie also called the relationship “toxic”. Writing in her autobiography, she said: “I won’t go into that one too much but he admitted he was horrible to me and that the relationship was toxic.”
When Gladiators and his romance came to an end, he found deeper meaning in the church. It was then that he said he hoped Katie would find God to save her from a “path that leads to death and destruction”.
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Introducing Reverend Warren Furman
In quite the career U-turn, father-of-two Warren decided to swap fame and fortune (at one point he was earning £2k an hour) for the priesthood.
After turning his back on the spotlight, he found his faith and became a committed Christian. He later trained as a Church of England vicar. Warren is now associate curate at a church in Hammersmith, West London.
His wife, Dionne, is a curate in charge of the church. They met in 2000 and have two grown-up children together, Bailey and Annabel.
Warren previously spoke to the BBC about his career change. He said that he felt “empty spiritually” after realising “fame and fortune doesn’t bring you happiness”. “To be told that God created me and that God loves me, I thought, well that’s good news,” he said of the turning point.
Speaking to Premier Christian Radio, he also spoke about the Alpha course that he completed that introduced him to religion.
“Over the weeks, it was explained to me that chasing celebrity and putting my identity in anything other than God is a spurious place to go. And when I heard about the Holy Spirit, it blew my mind. I’d been trying to get power all my life, lifting all these weights, and now I was being told that I could be filled with the supernatural power of God. It was incredible.”
He added: “When people say to me now: ‘Do you still do bodybuilding to keep fit?’ I say: ‘Yes, I am still a bodybuilder. And as Christians, I believe we’re all bodybuilders. We’re called to build the body of Christ, which is the Church.'”
The Summit is ‘the hardest thing he’s ever done’
Although Warren is surely one of the favourites to make it to the top of The Summit mountain, he admitted that the show – filmed at the end of 2024 – wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
He even told The Sun that he asked his parishioners to pray over the decision to reinsert himself back into the spotlight and sign up for the gruelling show.
Warren said: “When Gladiators came out it was the ultimate challenge. But you’ve never seen anything like this – humans pushed to their limits. This is the ultimate, ultimate challenge. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The scariest. And profoundly life-changing.”
Asked for why he wanted to take on “an adventure of a lifetime” on The Summit, Warren told ITV: “I believe that life begins at the end of your comfort zone and I think if your comfort zone is not expanding, then it’s shrinking. I don’t believe in living a life of fear and so I think we do need to challenge ourselves.
“I’m on a massive adventure. I came to faith 10 years ago and everything changed for me. Everything I consider or do I pray about. I ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate that and I feel this could be an opportunity from God and an opportunity to grow closer to God. Gladiators was the ultimate challenge, but when I was told this will be an adventure of a lifetime, my ears pricked up. Plus, you’re going to be at your worst… I want to test the mettle.”
Read more: Ben Shephard reveals shock reason filming on The Summit was repeatedly halted
