Her former partner and Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen Bear walked out of prison in January, having served 10-and-a-half months of his 21-month sentence for sharing a private film of him having sex with Harrison on his OnlyFans site without her consent.
On Monday, it was revealed Love Island star Harrison, 29, and champion boxer Lani Daniels, 36, were the two recruits to complete the latest series of the Channel 4 show which tests competitors’ physical endurance and mental strength.
Reflecting on how the last few years impacted her mentality going into the course, Harrison told the PA news agency: “I definitely think the experiences that I had over the last couple of years have made me so much stronger as an individual.
“And I think speaking to anyone who’s gone through grief, whether that be grief of a previous part of yourself, which is what image-based sexual abuse could cause, or grief of the loss of someone very close to you, it makes you a lot more empathetic but it makes things that probably would have affected you before that just seem like a pinch of salt.
“Because once you’ve fallen to that low in your life and in your existence, and you’ve had to carry on through it, nothing really compares to that feeling.
“And I think for a lot of it, that is what gave me my strength, having to have those experiences.”
The TV star has been campaigning for sexual assault victims to be prioritised more within the justice system following the revenge porn court case against her ex-boyfriend.
The finale saw the final four – Harrison, Daniels, former professional boxer Anthony Ogogo and reality TV Star Bianca Gascoigne – face an intense interrogation by a specialist team where they had to pretend they had been caught behind enemy lines deep in the New Zealand wilderness.
During the interrogation, the recruits had to relay a cover story which they had been given by the directing staff (DS) while being interrogated.
Harrison broke down in tears at one stage during the interrogation as she was being grilled for being the leader of the group and later when she was put into a cage outside.
During the finale, Ogogo was withdrawn from the course by the umpire as they felt he was being “arrogant” and Gascoigne voluntarily left the process.
Harrison revealed the interrogation was the most challenging aspect of the series, recalling: “You start to lose that understanding of space and time, you don’t know how long you’ve been in that situation for, how much longer it’s going to last, who’s with you anymore, you just become completely delusional.”
She feels completing the course has made her feel “more resilient” as a person and given her more strength to overcome everyday challenges.
Harrison also hopes it will break down any stereotypes about her, saying: “I definitely don’t think a lot of people thought that I would last two seconds in that environment, especially not when I turn up with my army nails.
“It’s definitely nice to override the perception that I’m an airhead reality star, which a lot of people can think, but actually I am really strong and I’m willing to get stuck in and I don’t really care what I look like or how silly I look in the moment, I’ll just give it my all and hope for the best.”
She added: “I left that course feeling so inspired by the DS, who they are as people, what they do for our country, I feel like I really learned a lot, like across my time when I was there.”
Reality star Bobby Norris, TV presenter Cherry Healey and Love Island star Ovie Soko missed out on the series finale after they left the process in the penultimate episode.