Celebrity Big Brother star hints that she’s heading BACK to the house – 18 years after winning show
A HUGE Celebrity Big Brother star has hinted that she’s heading BACK to the house – 18 years after winning show.
In 2006, Chantelle Houghton was sent into CBB to trick her famous housemates into thinking she too was a star.
The bubbly Essex girl soon became a star herself, commanding six-figure sums for magazine interviews and marrying Ordinary Boys star Preston in a gown made by Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer.
However, her marriage crumbled after just ten months and Chantelle ended up struggling with her fluctuating weight and for a time worked in The Body Shop.
The first time I went on Celebrity Big Brother, it was just such a game changer in my life, but it changed my life completely.
Chantelle Houghton
Celebrity Big Brother is returning to our screens next week after six years off air.
Chantelle had two stints on the show, as she returned for Ultimate Big Brother in 2010.
She has hinted that she would like a make a comeback to the show for a third time.
Speaking to Spin Genie, Chantelle said: “It was nice to go in there on an even keel and be able to enjoy it from the start.
“I don’t know whether it was because the first time I went in, it was just such a game changer in my life, but it changed my life completely.
“My first time was so much more fun, but I suppose knowing there was a lot of downtime in there, I had that knowledge that what you see on telly is 45 minutes to an hour, 24 hours is crammed into that.
“I was able to relax a lot more the second time, because of the first one being such a nerve wracking time.
“It was really different as well, because Preston was in the second one as well, and I went through quite a difficult time, because we then weren’t together anymore, yet here we were, we’re back in this enclosed environment.
She added: “It was quite emotional for me the second one, but I’m really glad I did it, and if they’d have me back, I’d go again!”
Last year, Chantelle revealed she had opted to ditch fame.
She told us: “I needed to step out of the spotlight for my mental health,” she says from the couch of her pal’s house in Battersea, South London.
“I was going through a really awful time. I was abused for a very, very long time.
“I lost myself in a lot of misery and I’m getting myself back bit by bit and enjoying being the person I always was.”
Before entering the Celebrity Big Brother house, she had been working as a temp at NatWest.
She was then thrust into the spotlight on CBB, posing as part of fictional girlband Kandy Floss.
Chantelle appeared in the famous house on Channel 4 alongside showbiz names including Michael Barrymore and the late Dead Or Alive singer Pete Burns.
Viewers fell in love with her overnight and she emerged the winner, having struck up a romance with fellow housemate, pop star Preston.
After their divorce in November 2007, Chantelle went on to have several high-profile relationships, including with TV presenter Rav Wilding and cage fighter Alex Reid — with whom she shares daughter Dolly, now 11.
Chantelle had applied for Big Brother at a “crossroads” in her life.
While she was rejected for the sixth series, producers liked her so much they cast her as a wild card in the celebrity version.
Chantelle said: “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so it was a bit of a lifesaver,” she says with a laugh.
“I’d imagined walking through them doors so many times because I’d got so close to going in the year before, on the normal Big Brother.
“But it was a dream come true, an ‘Oh my god, I’ve done it’ moment.
“It was incredible. The memory for me is still so alive in my mind, it’s like it was yesterday.”
“I’m in such a great place now, I’ve got a plan for my future and I’m excited about the next chapter of my life.”