celebforum - Chantelle Houghton

Chantelle Vivien Houghton (born August 21, 1983, Brentwood, Essex, England), was billed as the first 'non-celebrity' to feature in the Channel 4 reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006.

She emerged as the winner of series 4, beating 10 bona fide 'celebrities' (Michael Barrymore, Maggot, Preston, Pete Burns, Traci Bingham, Dennis Rodman, George Galloway, Rula Lenska, Faria Alam and Jodie Marsh), and winning a prize of £25,000.

Following a much-publicised on-screen courtship, Houghton married former fellow Celebrity Big Brother 2006 contestant Samuel Preston of The Ordinary Boys in August 2006. The couple announced their separation in a joint statement on June 27, 2007, and finally divorced on November 21, 2007.[1]

As a twist to the show, she was instructed to convince the celebrity housemates that she was a member of a (fictional) girl group named Kandy Floss, whose biggest hit was said to be "I Want It Right Now". Had she failed to convince them, she would have been evicted from the house. She successfully fooled her housemates and survived to the end of the show.

In her Big Brother profile page Chantelle described herself as a "bright, blonde bimbo". Chantelle is not a natural blonde however. She said, "I look like Paris Hilton, not on purpose but it's just the way it turned out". She has been nicknamed "Paris Travelodge" (implying a poor version of Paris Hilton).

Background

Chantelle grew up and lived in Wickford, Essex with her mother and step-father before she got married. She attended Bromfords School in Wickford and finished with 7 GCSEs. After she left, she worked at an office and then a bank, then finally at a Burger King in London.

Chantelle was bullied when she was younger and since finding fame she helped to launch Bullywatch London, which is backed by Beatbullying.

Modelling

Prior to appearing on Big Brother, Chantelle did some glamour modelling. In 2003, she appeared in The Daily Star as a page three girl.

She appeared as a Soccerette model on Sky TV's Soccer AM show.

Celebrity Big Brother 2006

Chantelle had originally applied to be in Big Brother 6 (shown June-August 2005). However, after some persuasion from Max Clifford, the show's producers put her in the Celebrity Big Brother house instead.

On the first evening, Chantelle reported a potential problem: she had previously met Jodie Marsh's brother while out clubbing. Happily for her, her fears proved unfounded.

On 8 January (day 4), Big Brother set a task to the group to rate themselves by how famous they thought they were. The celebrity they thought was the most famous stood on the #1 podium and the person they considered the least famous stood on the #11 podium. Chantelle had to avoid being put in the #11 podium to prove she had fooled the real celebrities and stay in the house. Chantelle survived the task, being chosen to stand on the #9 podium, ahead of Preston and Maggot. She was then called to the diary room to discuss her identity with Big Brother. This was simultaneously shown on a television screen in the lounge, in front of the other housemates.

Chantelle was nominated for eviction on day 21, but was saved from eviction by the public as the other two nominees George Galloway and Dennis Rodman were both evicted in a double eviction.

While in the house, Chantelle established close bonds with Jodie Marsh and Samuel Preston of The Ordinary Boys. She and Preston were married in August 2006.

Chantelle won the show on 27 January with 29.4% of the public vote, ahead of Michael Barrymore on 22.7%, earning her £25,000 (the celebrities were reportedly paid fees of up to £150,000 each).

Personal life

Chantelle announced her engagement to Samuel Preston on 11 April 2006. They were married on 25 August 2006 at the Dartmouth House in Mayfair, London. Chantelle coloured her hair brunette for the wedding.

Ten months later, on 27 June 2007 they announced in a joint statement that they were ending their marriage. "After much soul-searching and tearful discussions we have sadly decided to end our marriage," they said in the statement. “We hope we can always remain friends and still love each other but we both think we put so much pressure on one another to make our marriage work that it has ended up destroying our relationship. No one else is involved in our decision."

The couple insisted their relationship was genuine and denied they had rushed into marriage. “We know people will think we married too quickly on the back of Big Brother but the truth is that, what anyone thinks, we did have a whirlwind romance but we were genuinely in love with each other at the time and we will never regret our time together.

We both believe in marriage and we never treated our vows or our commitment to each other lightly. We've spent hours and hours discussing whether we can salvage our marriage, give it another go, try harder, anything rather than give up. But we now both agree that we should go our separate ways. We are both young and we still have our lives in front of us. The last two weeks or so have been very upsetting and sad for us and our friends and family and we appreciate their support."

It was announced in July 2007, in many tabloid newspapers and websites, that the couple had moved back in together. These rumours were confirmed in an interview between Chantelle, and OK! Magazine. However it was then reported that Preston was dating again and the ex-couple only communicated to discuss business matters

The rumours of the final breakdown to their marriage were confirmed on 21st November 2007, when London's Reuters News Agency announced that Houghton had been granted a decree nisi at First Avenue House, on the grounds of her husband's admitted unreasonable behavior. Preston did not contest the petition, and neither appeared in court for the ninety second hearing.