Fern Britton and Louis Walsh on CBB experience

Celebrity Big Brother housemate Fern Britton spoke about appearing in the ITV1 series…

This Morning hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley were joined earlier today (Wed 27th March) by Celebrity Big Brother housemate Fern Britton, after coming fifth in Friday’s final. After discussing her time in the house, Ben showed Fern old footage of his This Morning presenting debut – in which he appeared on-screen alongside Fern for the first time.

Flashback to This Morning in 2005 / Granada TV/ITV

With the pair reunited on the This Morning sofa after twenty years, Ben laughed and said: “Look how 2005 we are!” He added: “This was such an amazing moment for me because obviously I’ve been such a huge fan, and getting to host the show…” Fern replied: “Look how little you are! I adore you.” Before adding: “It’s lovely to be back.”  She continued: “And well done you two, very good!” before embracing Ben and Cat.

Earlier in the interview, Fern explained why she doesn’t plan to watch back any of her time in the Celebrity Big Brother house: “Well, I don’t want to embarrass myself and sit on the sofa feeling ghastly on my own. And I don’t want to delve deep into anything… I just don’t want to.” Ben reassuringly told her: “You didn’t embarrass yourself, you were absolutely sensational” but admitted: “Honestly when I heard you were going in, my jaw dropped.” 

“I surprised myself by saying yes.” Fern noted, adding, “The invitation came and I thought, ‘Well, that’s not an immediate no’. Isn’t that odd? And so I said, ‘Yes’ and then of course, everyone else asked ‘Why are you doing it?’ I thought, well, I could do with an adventure. I haven’t had an adventure for a little while. You know how sometimes you just need to challenge yourself and I quite like feeling uncomfortable sometimes. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a go’.”

Fern also revealed what it was like spending time with Sharon Osbourne on the show: “She’s an incredible woman. She really is. I loved her anyway but within the house, everybody just thought she was the bees knees. She’s fabulous, tells it as it is, doesn’t suffer fools but she’s also very, very, kind, caring, thoughtful.” 

On Monday (March 25th) fellow housemate, and critic of Fern, Louis Walsh spoke to This Morning about his time on CBB. Louis came fourth in Friday night’s Celebrity Big Brother final.

Admitting he was relieved to be out of the CBB house, he said: “You have no idea… Back in the real world, it was nothing like I thought it was going to be.” Opening up on why he wanted to appear on the show, Louis said: “I was asked a few times before and I always said ‘no’ and I said no at the start and then somebody said, ‘If you don’t do this, you’re going to be sorry!’ and I thought life’s too short. I didn’t know it was going to be as tough.” 

Louis spoke about his CBB experience / ITV1

Discussing his outspoken nature, Louis told Ben and Cat: “I think it’s an Irish thing, we tend to say what we feel.” Ben asked if Louis ‘forgot he was being filmed’ whilst in the house, after Louis surprised viewers with some of the comments made about people he’d had previously worked with. Louis responded: “A little bit, I wasn’t being malicious about it. I was just kind of telling people what they’re really like. You know, I wasn’t being malicious. Nobody is perfect and I have worked with people that I’ve said things about that I kind of regret. I do regret that, especially on national [television] but that’s me. I’m very outspoken.” 

Asked if Louis feels he ‘should have been a bit more cautious’ with his comments whilst in the house, Louis nodded and said: “Yeah, I should have been but I’m not… and that’s what makes the show, you just be honest. You’ve got to tell it as it is.” 

He went on to discuss his relationship with Ronan Keating, saying: “Ronan and I is a little bit of panto, I loved working with him. He was a great worker, he’s very driven, very good and he sacked me… So I don’t say great things about him but I don’t resent him and he’s a good person. So I have to put that out there and it’s a bit of panto between the two of us.” 

Asked if Louis agreed with the other housemates calling him ‘Lazy Louis’, he replied: “I don’t cook much you know, I wasn’t going to clean up. I was going to sit back and I was watching. It’s not that I’m lazy, I was watching them all performing. It was incredible, they all wanted to win.” 

Discussing his favourite housemates, Louis said: “I liked a lot of them… Marisha, I liked a lot. She didn’t get the credit she deserved because she’s a great, great singer and she’s like Bette Middler. She’s amazing.” On his friendship with Sharon Osbourne, he said: “She’s great fun, you know Mrs O, and she’s fun and she’s not afraid to say what she thinks…”

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