CELEBRITY Big Brother has been keeping viewers glued to their screens, with its explosive drama and headline-grabbing cast.
From “playing with fire” by recruiting Hollywood hellraiser Mickey Rourke to big-haired former Tory MP Michael Fabricant, this season has been nothing short of eventful.
Last week, both controversial figures left the house, with Michael, 74, being voted off and Mickey, 72, being asked to leave after offending housemates, including making homophobic comments towards JoJo Siwa.
Ian “H” Watkins, who appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, knows all too well what goes on behind closed doors in the house, having been part of the show’s most controversial series to date.
H was part of British dance-pop group Steps, along side Lee Latchford-Evans, Claire Richards, Lisa Scott-Lee, and Faye Tozer.
They were formed in May 1997 and achieved two number-one albums in the UK, 14 consecutive UK top-five singles including two number ones, but they split up on Boxing Day in 2001 when Claire and H left to form a recording duo.
Their single, DJ, went on to reach No3 on the UK Singles Chart, and their next two singles after that charted in the top 10.
Five years later, H became a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother.
“I was on quite a controversial series, and it even ruined some people’s careers,” he says.
“Back then it was different, they supplied endless amounts of alcohol. I was never a big drinker anyway, but the others did drink – which ultimately fuels bad things.
“Some moments were honestly not nice.”
The Tragedy hitmaker was a housemate during Jade Goody and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s infamous fallout, which was rife with tension after remarks made by reality TV star Jade were widely condemned as racist.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”90s pop megastar H from Steps now flogs paintings for up to £3k a pop” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6339518018112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]S Club 7‘s Jo O’Meara and former WAG Danielle Lloyd were also embroiled in the racism controversy surrounding Shilpa, who went on to win the show and later forgave contestants.
Over the course of the series, the racism towards Shilpa attracted one of the highest total of Ofcom complaints in TV history.
It went onto ruin the careers for all three contestants, with Jo later speaking to The Sun Newspaper about the incident.
“I think a lot of people wanted me to be punished for what happened, and I was,” Jo told The Sun.
She added: “I lost my career. I lost my home. I lost everything and I’m still trying to rebuild today. That’s why I feel so blessed to be back doing what I love.”
[quote credit=”Ian ‘H’ Watkins”]It’s hard to believe when I say it out loud[/quote]In 2007, H famously came out as gay on the day he entered the house, before leaving on day 26.
“The thing with Big Brother is you understand what the show is all about before you enter it, and my message is to always just be yourself, but be kind,” he says.
“The producers know what they are doing, because we love watching drama unfold.”
Although H admits to not watching this year’s series, he has a good idea of the types of characters the producers would have cast.
He says: “Everyone knows what they’re signing up for when it comes to Celebrity Big Brother.
“We love someone who can be educated, there’s usually a bigot in there, or someone that’s misogynistic, that needs to be educated, or if they’re not, they’ll get booted out.
“It usually goes along those lines, right?”
But overall, his experience was certainly unforgettable as he came fourth.
He says: “The game has changed now, Celebrity Big Brother now isn’t the same as when I was on it.
“There was also no social media back then, and people were just watching us. We even had a live channel dedicated to us, which would watch us sleeping.
“But overall, I had a great experience, and I’m still great friends with Shilpa as well, so there were lots of positives from it for me.”
But his Celebrity Big Brother days are far behind him, as he is now learning the ropes of being a single dad to his eight-year-old twins, Macsen and Cybi, who were born via surrogacy.
It’s a world away from his Steps days – including touring with Britney Spears on her Baby One More Time Tour in 1999 – as his main focus now is the school run and PTA meetings.
“We had an amazing time supporting Britney on tour,” he says.
“That happened because we were on the same record label. One year we did this big concert in Singapore.
“We were headlining and Britney was actually our support on that show – because she hadn’t released yet.
“Then shortly afterwards, Baby One More Time took over the world and she asked us to support her on tour.”
And despite being an award winning pop group, with worldwide sales of over 20 million records, the group were always careful with their money.
“We were managed very well, and we valued everything we had,” he says.
“We saw our peers having music videos that cost millions of pounds, they had cars, they had makeup artists, and styling.
“So we always questioned every penny that went in and out. We managed Steps as a business very well – and that’s why we did even better.”
Looking back at his life, he can’t believe the life journey he has been on with Steps.
[quote credit=”Ian ‘H’ Watkins”]As a busy parent, juggling bills alongside everything else life throws at you can feel overwhelming[/quote]“It’s hard to believe when I say it out loud. It’s like, those sentences (touring with Steps) just came out of my mouth? And now I’m about to do the school run!”
He continues: “I am very much involved with my boys.
“I do the PTA, I put on pride every year in our town, all the schools have floats, the local knitting group, the karate club, everybody…
“And we celebrate diversity through inclusion and celebration.
“I feel like I’m a really active member of the community.
“I want my kids to have the things I didn’t have, which was acceptance and kindness.
“And you have to… It’s cliche, but you have to be the change that you want to see. If you want to change, then you do something about it.”
Channel 4 has been approached for comment.
