GINO D’ACAMPO has told how a drunken joke on Celebrity Juice led to a very costly mistake to the tune of £20,000.
The TV celebrity chef was jostled into changing his name to Sheffield, when he was the team captain on Leigh Francis‘ panel show, which upset his Italian mother.
The 48-year-old agreed to go along with the idea because “I was drunk” – but it later cost him a fortune in legal fees because of travel difficulties.
He said: “I was not in a mind state which was normal, and I Iost the bet. I just said it like that, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever’, not thinking that those idiots would bring me the piece of paper for me to sign and send it off.
“So I had a nightmare for two, three years of passports, American visas.”
He said his late mother was also shocked when she found out he had put an English city in the middle of his name.
Gino continued: “When she found out that my name was not a beautiful Italian name any more, but was Gino Sheffield D’Acampo, oh my God.”
Asked on the White Wine Question Time podcast if it was like having a tattoo, he replied: “Worse than that, a tattoo, you can cover it.
“I’ve got nothing against Sheffield or the people of Sheffield, but for a true Italian to have Sheffield in the middle of his name. We had to have it removed for an American visa.
“I had this passport with Sheffield and all of that, and then I applied to go for waivers when you go to America and they didn’t like the fact. ‘Why?’ they were asking me.
“How am I going to explain to the American people I was drunk. They couldn’t get their heads around why would I put that in two Italian names. So for them it was a bit dodgy.
“So I went to the lawyers and the lawyer said ‘do everybody a favour, can we please go back to your real name’. This is how it happened, but six, seven years later.”
Asked if it proved costly to rectify, the 48-year-old Gino’s Italian Escape star, said: “I would say knowing how much does it cost legal, with visas and stuff like that, about 20 grand, easy.
“But you know what, I wouldn’t change. I have no regrets in my life. So I would do it again.”
