Celebrity Big Brother and How Clean Is Your House star dies aged 83

How Clean Is Your House and reality TV star Kim Woodburn has died at the age of 83, her manager has confirmed.

The TV personality was best known for appearing on the Channel 4 cleaning show alongside Aggie MacKenzie. She also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother.

Her manager told BBC News: “It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness.

“Kim was an incredibly kind, caring, charismatic and strong person. Her husband Peter is heartbroken at the loss of his soulmate.

“We are so proud of the amazing things Kim achieved in her life and career.”

He added: “We kindly ask that Kim’s husband and close friends are given the time and privacy they need to grieve.”

Woodburn was also a regular contributor on Loose Women and This Morning, and was well known for her outspoken views.

Woodburn became a well-known culture figure following her stint on Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2017, going on to spark several memes.

She famously fell out with Loose Women panellist Coleen Nolan when both took part in Celebrity Big Brother.

Media watchdog Ofcom later received more than 3,000 complaints about a 2018 episode of Loose Women after Woodburn walked off the show in tears.

In 2018, the pair rowed again on Loose Women before Woodburn stormed off set.

Woodburn’s other high profile TV appearances included appearing in the ninth series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! She finished as runner-up to Gino D’Acampo in 2009.

But it was Channel 4’s How Clean Is Your House that gave Woodburn her big break. The producers teamed her up with Aggie MacKenzie and the show went on to be a hit, running from 2003 to 2009.

Woodburn was born in Hampshire but left home at 16 and moved to Liverpool where she worked as a live-in cleaner.

She later settled in Nantwich, Cheshire, with second husband Peter Woodburn, who she married in 1979.

Speaking to BBC show Heaven and Earth in 2008, Woodburn talked about her difficult childhood, referring to her 2007 autobiography, Beaten.

She said she was sent to a boarding school early on: “I found the nuns extremely cruel, my sister and I were there. We were very young, we were all very badly treated. They beat you, they were very cold to you. I was about three or four [when she went]. There was no kindness at all.”

She also talked about becoming pregnant in her 20s and losing the baby at six months, going on to bury him in a park in Liverpool.

“I was on my own, I didn’t have the backing of my parents. My boyfriend of three years had gone and found someone else. I’m so glad today it isn’t such a shameful thing. You don’t need to do what I had to resort to now out of shame and sadness. Of course I do (still think about her son)… it’s only natural.”

She said she would never forgive her parents for the cruelty they showed her.