SHE was the girl next door who won the heart of the nation – and Ordinary Boys frontman Preston. But no romance was meant to last.
Chantelle Houghton was sent into Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 to trick her celebrity housemates into thinking she was a star too.
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Chantell Houghton was the girl next door who won the heart of the nation – and Ordinary Boys frontman Preston. But neither romance lasted Credit: Stewart Williams
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Chantelle and Preston became a couple in the Big Brother house Credit: Channel 4
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Chantelle and Preston married in 2006, but the marriage didn’t last and the couple split less than a year laterCredit: Daniel Kennedy
And the bubbly Essex lass soon became one, commanding six-figure sums for magazine interviews and marrying Preston in a dress made by the designer of Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
However, her marriage fell apart after just ten months and Chantelle ended up struggling with her fluctuating weight and working at The Body Shop for a while.
But now the 40-year-old has never looked or felt better – after leaving the fame game.
“I had to step away from the limelight because of my mental health,” she says from the couch at her friend’s house in Battersea, south London.
“I was going through a really terrible period. I was abused for a very, very long time.
“I got lost in a lot of misery and I’m coming back little by little and enjoying being the person I’ve always been.”
With Big Brother returning to our screens this Sunday, now on ITV, Chantelle reflected on the show that changed her life.
She was working as a temporary assistant at NatWest when she shot into the limelight in the fourth series of the celebrity spin-off, posing as part of fictional girl group Kandy Floss.
She appeared on Channel 4’s Famous House 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 victorious after starting a romance with fellow housemate, pop star Preston.
Following their divorce in November 2007, Chantelle went on to have several high-profile relationships, including with TV presenter Rav Wilding and clothing cage fighter Alex Reid – with whom she shares daughter Dolly, now 11.
Fans were delighted not only by her love life, but also by her struggle with weight, and she became known as a person on a yo-yo diet.
She explains: “I didn’t eat, or I only ate when I was hungry. And then, when I was starving, I ate everything I could get my hands on. I would stop at McDonald’s or get a bag of chips or crisps.”
After giving up sugar, vegan Chantelle has now lost five pounds in two years and says she feels better in every way.
She adds: “I lost it really healthy, not on some crazy diet. It was a complete change of lifestyle.
“I don’t eat sugar and I don’t eat processed food, just really healthy food, I eat real food, I get real nutrients.
“I feel so much better, health-wise, mind-body-wise.”
And it’s not just Chantelle’s weight that has changed significantly since we last saw her on our screens.
When she entered the Big Brother house, she had blonde extensions – but because of the distinctive look, her locks fell out.
She has now ditched the hair accessories and embraced her natural brunette color.
She says: “Because I was so blonde, and because of the extensions, I ended up with so many bald spots.
“So I had all the extensions removed, went dark and only did Kerastase treatments on my hair once a week and now I took care of myself.
Chantelle signed up for Big Brother at a “crossroads” in her life.
While she was rejected for the sixth series, the producers liked her so much that they cast her as a wildcard in the celebrity version.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so it was a lifesaver,” she says with a laugh.
“I imagined walking through that door so many times because I was so close to getting in the year before, in a normal Big Brother.
“But it was a dream come true, an ‘Oh my God, I did it’ moment.
“It was amazing. The memory for me is still so vivid in my mind, as if it were yesterday.”
Meeting Preston, now 41, remains Chantelle’s favorite part of her experience on the popular reality TV show, although their relationship didn’t last.
She says: “Being in the house and meeting Preston was a whirlwind. It was such a happy time. I finally got over the fact that I was the only person who wasn’t famous, that I passed the assignment, and then I slowly fell in love with someone.
“It was a dream come true, it was really wonderful.”
Chantelle hasn’t seen Preston in three years, but they still talk and are on good terms, and she says they are “really good friends”.
He attributes the end of their marriage to their age and the publicity they were getting at the time.
She says, “I still have so much love. We were so young and it was so busy.
“It was like a holiday romance, but much more intense.
“We moved to Brighton. I had no family or friends living down there and it was a huge pressure on him, because he was the only person I knew there.
“It was so magnified, we were in the press a lot of the time and we were babies.
“I have absolutely no regrets and I still adore him.”
Since her divorce, Chantelle has been engaged twice, to Alex Reid in 2011 and to construction entrepreneur and alloy wheel repairer Michael Strutt, from whom she split in 2021.
But she never made it to the altar again.
He’s not looking for love right now.
She says, “I don’t go out, but I’m not averse to going out. I don’t have time for that and I don’t want to date just for the sake of dating.
“If I met someone and really liked them, I’d love to go on a date, but right now I haven’t met anyone I’d like to pursue.
“But who knows? Maybe it’s out there, maybe it’s not.”
In an emotional Instagram post last November, Chantelle opened up about the fact that she suffered “narcissistic abuse and coercive control” in a past relationship.
‘Trauma and hard times’
She wrote: “For so long I felt alone and isolated and felt like no one knew what I was going through or how I felt.” Telling the world about it was “healing”.
Now Chantelle says she has emerged from the other side.
She says: “Right now, all I care about is being happy with myself.
Many years ago I would always think ‘you will find your happiness in someone else, someone else will fix you, make you happy’.
“But actually I realized that you should be happy with yourself, and I am happy alone.
“Many years ago, if someone had said that I had to find myself, I would have been ignorant and answered: ‘Where are you going to be? In Tesco?’ But now I fully understand the meaning of it.
“When you go through trauma and hard times, you understand a deeper level of things, and I found myself and I know who I am and where I want to be.
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Preston and Chantell’s fake proposal in the Big Brother house Credit: Channel 4
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After her marriage to Preston ended, Chantelle eventually struggled with her fluctuating weight and worked at The Body ShopCredit: Splash News
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Following her divorce in 2007, Chantelle had several high-profile relationships, including with TV presenter Rav Wilding and cross-dressing cage fighter Alex Reid, above Credit: FilmMagic – Getty
“I’m in such a good place now, I have a plan for my future and I’m excited for the next chapter of my life.”
And with the imminent return of Big Brother, memories of her time in the house came flooding back.
“I look back on my time on Big Brother with such fond memories,” she says. “I feel like it’s been a different life, but I feel like I’ve lived so many lives.
“What I went through, I can’t really talk to anyone, because it’s crazy, right? There is no such job in the Employment Service, is there?
“It’s given me so many opportunities that I’m very grateful for, the countries I’ve been to, the food I’ve been able to experience eating, just great times.”
Chantelle, who returned to the house in 2010 for Ultimate Big Brother, finishing third, is one of the rumored favorites to return. Were?
“Hell yes, I’d do Big Brother again, I’d run there,” she confides.
“I mean, that’s a lot of weeks without bills, without buying food, without responsibilities.
“Feed, drink, play games, maybe even win. So yes, absolutely. I would go back in!”
- Big Brother: The Launch is on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm on 8 October.
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