‘I was on Celebrity Big Brother – this is the one thing you don’t ever see’-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

The wait is finally over – Celebrity Big Brother is hitting our screens in just hours as a handful of celebrities enter the house.

While they won’t be confirmed until the launch tonight, rumours have been swirling and the line-up appeared to have been revealed, with the likes of Ekin-Su Culculoglu, Louis Walsh and Strictly Come Dancing star Nikita Kuzmin reportedly taking part.

They’ll be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Katie Price, Rylan Clark, and Chantelle Houghton who all won Celebrity Big Brother during its original run.

After seven years off-air, ITV confirmed in November that the celebrity spin-off will be returning on its flagship channel ITV1, after the success of the civilian series, which was won by Jordan Sangha.

And while it gave us plenty of memorable moments, from ‘David’s Dead’ to George Galloway pretending to be a cat, there’s also a lot that viewers haven’t seen.

Reality TV star Jess Impiazzi appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, alongside the likes of Ann Widdecombe and winner Courtney Act, in the season known as Year of the Woman.

Jess Impiazzi has spilled the tea on what Celebrity Big Brother is really like (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

Jess came in fourth place during the 2018 series (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)

The model made it to the final and finished in fourth place, and has now spilt the tea on what it was really like – including the housemates being locked in their bedrooms and secretly being told off with Big Brother warnings.

‘They locked us in our rooms’

While it’s fairly common knowledge the housemates are confined to limited spaces in the house and garden, at times they were also locked in the bedroom and heard ‘the doors bolt’.

Jess explained that Big Brother would inform the housemates to go into their bedrooms so the rest of the house could be cleaned.

She said: ‘A lot of the time [it was] at night-time, and you’d see the lights change and the doors bolt.’

And being so confined to the small space meant Jess couldn’t even dream about anywhere else, as she said: ‘We couldn’t dream outside the house… so all my dreams started being like we were getting attacked in the building, it was just really weird dreams, like my brain couldn’t see outside of the house after a while.’

Jess recalled hearing the doors bolt and being locked in the bedroom (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

‘I was told off for meditating in the bathroom’

And when Jess did want a little privacy, she was actually told off.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, she went on to say that while Big Brother aired the tasks and conversations, parts that weren’t shown were just the housemates relaxing in the sauna.

She said: ‘I did try and meditate one day and I sat in the bathroom and they were like, “Jess, you’re reminded you’re not allowed to sleep during the day,” [but] I’m not sleeping!

‘So they didn’t like you to go off on your own too much, but I’m the kind of person that around people I love it but then I have to energise by being on my own again and I can come back. So that can be a bit draining.’

The TV star was told off for trying to meditate (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

‘It’s actually so boring’

There was little else to do aside from meditate and try and pass the time, Jess admitted.

Saying she did have ‘a really good time’ despite the nerves, once she was in the flow of being in the house, it became boring.

Jess continued: ‘There’s boring bits in there of course because you know, you only see an hour of the whole 24 hours in there.

‘But I had such a good time and I met the most amazing people, I was in Year of the Woman so it wasn’t like confrontations or people losing it for headlines. I can’t bear that, I just can’t deal with confrontation or pointless arguments.’

‘We didn’t have anything to do – not even books or pens’

She went on to say that without phones, books, pens or anything to do else to do, all the housemates could do was chat.

‘In between tasks and in between certain other bits you can get a little bit bored but eventually you start making your routine,’ she said.

The reality of Big Brother is pretty boring (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

‘So I would do my breakfast, I’d run around the garden, and then once you start to build that and get a bit of a routine, it’s a bit easier.

‘But as you can imagine with 24 hours being filmed and only one making it into the show in the evening, it is a bit of a like, “What now?” and you’re in the same compound like a little mouse.’

‘Big Brother didn’t really speak to us – and we never, ever spoke to producers’

While viewers see Big Brother reminding the housemates not to fall asleep and introducing the tasks, Jess shared that the infamous voice didn’t really speak to the housemates otherwise, and they never ever saw producers.

Sometimes though, she’d be given little warnings after stealing items from the house.

She said: ‘They don’t really speak to you that much, it’s only “Jess come to the Diary Room,” if I’ve stolen a pen and been caught out for doing something naughty like stealing a little key I found in the rations and hiding it.’

Despite that, Jess admitted she felt it was almost like ‘Stockholm syndrome’, as the housemates were so keen to be given tasks.

‘I always say it was like Stockholm syndrome. The minute you hear the voice, I’m like “Yes, we’ve got something to do.”‘

‘You’re not interacting with other people,’ she went on. ‘You have no producers or other people that you see, you don’t even see when they change the sets because you’re locked in your rooms.’

The star admitted it was like ‘Stockholm syndrome’ hearing Big Brother’s voice (Picture: James Shaw/REX/Shutterstock)

‘Not knowing the time was horrible – but we almost got away with finding a secret clock’

Just like reality programmes like The Traitors and Love Island, contestants are forbidden from knowing the time, which Jess described as ‘horrible’, particularly because her season was filmed during winter when the days became darker earlier.

‘I remember one of us saw a tiny little clock on the oven and were whispering to each other in the first few days. And they heard us and got rid of our clock!’ Jess revealed.

She went on: ‘But that was hard. We couldn’t judge what time it was and you don’t know what time you’re going to the bed and waking up, you’re just on Big Brother’s timezone.

‘I had to just forget about it because that would send you mad if you don’t know what time it is. But they had a lights out and a lights on so you had to judge by that.’

‘Big Brother didn’t actually step in – despite what you think’

After watching plenty of drama in other seasons, Jess was shocked to find that Big Brother never intervened to promote ‘cattiness’.

Jess was shocked at the lack of cattiness on Celebrity Big Brother (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

She recalled the ‘important conversations’ that took place during the Year of the Woman, after being ‘sick of just seeing people screeching at each other for no other reason than to make a headline’.

She added: ‘I was apprehensive that they were trying to push the cattiness, but they didn’t and so for me it was a nice surprise, to have such good conversations and none of the silliness that sometimes comes with those shows.’

‘Coming out of the house wasn’t as glamorous as you’d think – I was really scared and vulnerable’

Although the Big Brother house isn’t too glamorous, life on the outside and the afterparty appears to be.

But Jess has cleared up that misconception, saying that the first night after the final, she slept on the floor with a towel.

She explained: ‘So my mum and my niece’s mum were outside waiting for me. I was really scared to come out.

‘It was like a bit overwhelming when the doors open because you just got so used to your bubble. I was a bit in shock coming out.

‘And then my mum and my niece’s mum were supposed to stay at another hotel, but I didn’t want them to leave me so I had them with me, but they got drunk at the after party. I didn’t. So they had to head to bed and pass out and I stayed on the floor with a towel, freezing.

She was left ‘vulnerable’ exiting the house (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

‘And then I didn’t actually go to sleep because I just like sat there like breathing. That was not the glamorous part.

‘Everyone else had a big party, I didn’t drink so I just sat them laying on the floor or the towel, that was my out party.’

When asked what it felt like to be on the outside again, Jess added that it was ‘overwhelming’ and ‘scary’ to have not known what was going on in the world for a month.

‘You forget that a lot of people been watching you for a very long time, for a month and you don’t know if people are going to like you or hate you. You don’t. So you feel a bit vulnerable when you’re going out.’

Jess Impiazzi was speaking to Metro on behalf of Heart Bingo

Celebrity Big Brother 2024 starts on Monday, March 4 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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