Drag queen says she entered gruelling SAS: Who Dares Wins to make her army colonel dad proud
SAS: Who Dares Wins contestant Mark went on GMB as his drag alter ego Cybil War. (Channel 4/ITV)
SAS: Who Dares Wins contestant Mark went on Good Morning Britain as his drag alter ego Cybil War to explain how he wants to make his dad proud.
Mark, 31, is one of 25 contestants on the new series of SAS: Who Dares Wins.
He unveiled his drag alter ego Cybil War to the nation on Tuesday’s (January 14) Good Morning Britain, joining hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid in a full beat, hot pants and fishnets.
Standing seven foot tall in heels, Cybil told the pair that she’d entered the show partly for her father, who was in the SAS himself.
“I did this as a tribute to my dad,” she explained. “The SAS is something that has been part of my family for my entire life, but it’s so secretive.”
Morgan began the interview on a narrow-minded note, saying: “You wouldn’t expect a SAS hero like your dad to have a son – and I say this with great respect – who’d end up being a drag queen, who also wanted to compete in a SAS programme.”
Cybil War has a familiar coming out story.
The conversation swiftly moved to drag and coming out, with Cybil explaining that she began experimenting with the artform while living in New York six years ago.
She said that prior to this she had come out to her father as gay aged 18.
“That went surprisingly well,” she said.
“My dad is ever the stoic army colonel, I had to get him to turn the TV off so I could have serious chat with him.
“I’d spent about an hour in my bedroom walking around going, ‘Dad I’m gay’, trying to find that perfect kind of way.”
Morgan continued by asking Cybil how her dad had reacted to her coming out as a drag queen, saying: “Being gay is one thing for your dad – your parents – to deal with. Being a seven foot drag queen is not something most SAS guys probably come across very often.”
Cybil explained that her dad’s response was simple: “Well, I like Dame Edna.”
SAS: Who Dares Wins contestant says her dad has seen her do drag.
Since then, she said, her dad has been to see her perform once.
“I think to begin with, he would probably be more comfortable in a war zone,” she quipped.
“An LGBTQ club at Halloween is all sorts of costumes and nudity, so his eyes were opened.”
When asked whether she felt she had something to prove to her dad in going on Who Dares Wins, Cybil admitted: “A little bit.”
“Part of the reason for going on the show was to get a sliver of a glimpse of an insight into what he went through in his long and decorated career,” she said.
Would Cybil War join the SAS for real?
Turning to the physical demands of the show, Cybil explained that the contestants were kept on an extremely restricted diet, with sleep “virtually non-existent”.
“The thing that I struggled with most was that we never knew how long we were going to be in there for,” she added. “You could never relax.”
When asked whether she had been tempted to sign up for the SAS following the show, Cybil said the decision was an easy one to make.
“A beret wouldn’t fit on this hair!”
