Entertainment
Alison Hammond went on Big Brother to clear ‘traumatising’ debt-Stella Akinwumi-Entertainment – Metro
‘And they were saying ‘you should go on Big Brother, you’d win it’.
Alison was a holiday rep before she applied for the reality series (Picture: Getty)
Alison Hammond revealed that she applied for Big Brother to clear her debts of £3000.
In 2002, when she was 26, the This Morning legend entered the Big Brother house for the third series of the Channel 4 show, alongside Kate Lawler and Jade Goody.
Following her stint on the hit reality show, Alison has become a viral sensation and graced our screens with stints on I’m a Celeb, Strictly Come Dancing and the Great Celebrity Bake Off.
Before she signed up for Big Brother, the 47-year-old worked as a holiday rep and struggled to pay off her debts.
Reflecting on the application process on Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, she said: ‘I was in Tunisia, repping, and everyone was reading the papers about Brian Dowling – he had won Big Brother.
‘And they were saying ‘you should go on Big Brother, you’d win it’.
Alison appeared on the show 20 years ago (Picture: WireImage)
Alison co-hosts This Morning every week alongside Dermot O’Leary (Picture: ITV)
She continued: ‘Every time I got paid I just couldn’t make that debt go down. So I thought that’d be a good idea to win £70,000 going in a TV show.’
The series three finale led Kate to secure the £70,000 prize and peaked at 10million viewers making it the 10th most watched episode to air on Channel 4 ever.
In May this year, Alison celebrated 20 years since her Big Brother stint and shared a fan’s clip of Davina McCall introducing her on the show as an unemployed, 26-year-old with a Vaseline obsession.
The presenter retweeted the video and gushed: ‘Omg 20 years since Big Brother changed my life Eternally grateful to Big Brother, how gorgeous is @thisisdavina I just love her.’
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Since the series, Alison’s career has gone from strength to strength as she worked her way up on small TV shows, before becoming a co-host of ITV’s morning show, This Morning alongside Dermot O’Leary.
There has been plenty of speculation around who could host the rebooted reality show – which is set to premiere next year – over the past few months, however, it seems that bosses have eyed AJ Odudu who previously co-helmed the programme’s spin-off, Bit On The Side.
According to reports, AJ ‘jumped at the opportunity’ as it is a ‘huge boost’ to her growing career.
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