A former Celebrity Big Brother winner has revealed A-list stars are forced to do their own washing, strip bed sheets, and even scrub the toilets during their stay in the famous TV house.
David Potts, 31, who won last year’s ITV series after appearing alongside Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh, and Fern Britton, told MailOnline contestants are made to do everyday chores and aren’t treated differently by producers depending on their level of success.
The Ibiza Weekender rep explained that housemates agree to follow Big Brother’s ‘rules’ and sign a ‘code of conduct’, which includes being respectful towards their co-stars.
Their movements are followed all hours of the day and Big Brother is quick to respond when celebrities step out of line, which viewers have seen this season following Mickey Rourke’s axing.
The US actor, 72, was booted off the show on Saturday after being homophobic to dancer JoJo Siwa, threatening former Love Islander Chris Hughes, and reducing TOWIE’s Ella Rae Wise to tears.
And David believes that Mickey’s early departure was ‘inevitable’ but given producers don’t tell stars what to say or how to act, anything can happen inside the show’s four walls.
A former Celebrity Big Brother winner has revealed A-list stars are forced to do their own washing, strip bed sheets, and even scrub the toilets during their stay in the famous TV house
US actor Mickey Rourke was booted off the show after being homophobic to dancer JoJo Siwa, threatening former Love Islander Chris Hughes, and reducing TOWIE’s Ella Rae Wise to tears
David Potts, who won last year’s series, told MailOnline contestants are made to do everyday chores and aren’t treated differently by producers depending on their level of success
David said: ‘You do everything yourself on Celebrity Big Brother. No additional people come in, we do all the cleaning, the cooking, the housework, cleaning the toilets, cleaning the showers, making the beds, stripping the beds, your own washing, everything, you do absolutely everything.
‘We made our own beds, a lot of people didn’t, which was a thing in my series. I was the only person who made my bed every single day.
‘All contestants are treated equally, there’s no special treatment depending on how famous you are.
‘The cameras never stop rolling, they are constant. The only time I ever heard anything was when I caught somebody in the camera runs, there was someone behind the wall, it was weird because if I was at home and heard that I would be so scared.’
Former boxer Mickey was finally told to leave the Celebrity Big Brother house this weekend after being warned of his ‘unacceptable behaviour’ on several occasions.
He offended JoJo, whose partner Kath Ebbs identifies as non-binary, by using the derogatory term ‘fag’ to describe the dancer’s sexuality.
During the programme’s pirate challenge, which saw the housemates dress as shipmates, he was physically aggressive towards Chris, sparking a further warning.
Big Brother took action after Ella, who’s 48 years Mickey’s junior, sobbed when he made sexual remarks towards her, which she said made her feel ‘uneasy.’
During the programme’s pirate challenge, which saw the housemates dress as shipmates, Mickey was physically aggressive towards Chris, sparking a further warning
Big Brother took action after Ella, who’s 48 years Mickey’s junior, sobbed when he made sexual remarks towards her, which she said made her feel ‘uneasy’
David appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2024 alongside Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh, and Fern Britton, and fought off competition to win the series
After he confessed to being a recluse for the past six years, MailOnline asked David whether signing up Mickey for the show in a reported £500,000 deal, was a good idea or not worth the risk.
He said: ‘It was inevitable that something like this was going to happen. It is a shame that it had to happen.
‘Producers aren’t able to guarantee what someone is going to say and that’s what the good thing is about Big Brother, you have people from different walks of life and different backgrounds with different views and you chuck people in a house and see what happens.
‘No one can guarantee how someone is, it’s free will, you aren’t told what to say, producers don’t intervene, you literally have your housemates and Big Brother and the diary room and that’s it. You are never, ever told what to say.
‘You have your rules as Big Brother mentions on the show. It’s like a code of conduct, a general code that you would get in any reality show, and you had your separate Big Brother rules too.
‘Being respectful, not speaking about nominations, all the kind of house rules like respecting the property, don’t smash anything up, it’s just the way you would behave on the outside, a respectful code of conduct.’
Mickey reduced JoJo to tears by saying ‘I’m going to vote the lesbian out real quick’ and ‘if I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore’, promoting the star to reply: ‘I can guarantee I will still be gay and in a very happy relationship.’
David, after being subjected to homophobic abuse as a gay man, says while he felt ‘horrendous’ for JoJo, if the same happened to him in the house, he would be ‘desensitised’ to the ordeal.
Chris, whose exes include Olivia Attwood and Jesy Nelson, supported JoJo throughout the fallout with Mickey, coming to her defence and comforting the singer as she cried
The pair have since grown closer, which has seen Chris tickle JoJo’s back as they laid in bed together and call the US reality star ‘sexy’ in her pirate outfit
While viewers have questioned whether there’s a physical attraction between them, David believes their friendship wouldn’t be as shocking if Chris was a gay man and JoJo was straight
He said: ‘For me, I’m not a sensitive person, what I enjoyed the most about the episode was later in the show they were educating him, which is so important.
‘People say it’s a generational thing but that’s not right if you’re willing to be educated. It’s understandable if you get terminology wrong especially as we know he has been isolating for six years so he’s not been out.
‘It was obviously unacceptable. I’m a gay man and I have been subjected to a lot of homophobic behaviour over the years… It’s a shame that I feel desensitised to it.
‘If I was in the house and it was towards me, I would feel desensitised. But when it happened to JoJo, I felt horrendous for her, it was so sad, especially because she’s such a young girl, she’s larger than life and such a happy personality…’
Chris, whose exes include Olivia Attwood and Jesy Nelson, supported JoJo throughout the fallout with Mickey, coming to her defence and comforting the singer as she cried.
The pair have since grown closer, which has seen Chris tickle JoJo’s back as they laid in bed together and call the US reality star ‘sexy’ in her pirate outfit.
While viewers have questioned whether there’s a physical attraction between them, David believes their tactile friendship wouldn’t be as shocking if Chris was a gay man and JoJo was straight.
He said: ‘I don’t really think it’s that weird… I’m trying to put myself back in the house and obviously I have lived it but for the viewers, they have only been in there a week.
‘But your feelings are extremely heightened, your emotions are high, those are the only people, you don’t speak to anyone else. I’m pretty sure there were times were me and Ekin-Su were playing with each other’s hair.
‘I don’t think there’s a romance there because JoJo is a lesbian… People find it easy to look at a woman and think she’s being tactile with a man but if it was a gay man and a straight woman, it wouldn’t be as much as a thing. When it’s flipped the other way around, people think it’s something that it’s not.
‘Chris has been there for JoJo, which was lovely to see especially as someone from the queer community myself, to see a heterosexual male standup for the queer community and be so vocal.’
