CELEBRITY Big Brother star Trisha Goddard has revealed she was once so broke she needed to borrow money from her children.
The TV star and journalist, 67, has been a prominent figure on TV screens for decades and even hosted a popular long-running talk show on ITV and then Channel 5.
But despite her fame, Trisha suffered financial hardship after her divorce from ex-husband Peter Gianfrancesco in 2017.
Money wasn't a driving factor in her decision to sign up for CBB, although she admits she could have done with the earnings, rumoured to be £200k, in the past.
Speaking to on her Begin Again podcast, Trisha said: “Let me be honest, money wise, I've been asked a couple of times before when, the public didn't know, but I was really brassic. You know, divorced, having to pay people out, all that stuff.
“Really, I mean seriously, like borrowing money from my kids for a while and I still said there's no way I was going to do it.”;
Trisha is mum to daughters Madison, 35, and Billie, 32, from her first marriage to Aussie TV producer Mark Greive.
It was her eldest who encouraged her to finally put pen to paper on the resurgent reality show after years of declining offers.
In 2023, Trisha was diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer, 15 years after first battling the illness.
Though she initially kept it secret for a year-and-a-half, Trisha now wants to raise awareness and show that life can still be lived while dealing with the condition.
“To me, I had no reason to do it,” said Trisha. “Yeah, the money sounded good, but I wasn't in a place where I wanted to do it... I mean I trained producers in reality television, so I knew the game.”;
“So this time I was asked and I said to my older daughter, I said, ‘oh God, as usual, they've asked me to go do Big Brother.’
“And she said, ‘mum, while you're going through this whole cancer shenanigans, you have become passionate about the language around it.
“The lack of joined up services, the way the press reports it, the misinformation, you're doing it on Instagram, you're supporting people,’ and they support me... you know, my daughter said ‘you got all of these stuff you're passionate about.’”
The reach of Big Brother is certainly greater than the local press she had previously spoken to in America, where she now lives.
Trisha continued: “She said, ‘mom, this is your opportunity for people to see what you're talking about, not just the words, to actually see, what 3.4 million people, according to the Macmillan, by December, 3.4 million people in the UK alone are living with cancer. Six million people are living with a chronic illness now.
“Now they're not all on benefits. Most of them are working. A lot of them keep it secret because they think they won't get further work or they'll be fired. And that's a very real fear.”
Although Big Brother is ultimately a popularity contest, Trisha said she wasn’t chasing votes or trying to be liked.
In fact, she said she feels suspicious of people who like her.
“I don't need to have loads and loads of friends,” she said. “I’m very much like my older daughter like this. I instinctively don't trust – if I feel I don't trust people or I just get a feeling about them at this late age in my life, I've learned to go with that because it's right.”;
But she evidently had nothing to worry about in that department, as she received a hero’s welcome on Monday night when she entered the house to cheers from the live audience.
And she wasted no time putting her journalistic skills to good use inside, sitting down for a chat with Hollywood maverick Mickey Rourke and asking about his own motivations.
