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Celebrity Big Brother icon reveals new job away from fame after Body Shop role

EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity Big Brother icon Chantelle Houghton has opened up about the jobs she's had since stepping away from the spotlight due to "personal" struggles

Celebrity Big Brother icon Chantelle Houghton has revealed what she's up to nowadays almost 20 years after she shot to fame on the reality show.

Chantelle first stepped into the CBB house as the only non-celeb in 2006 and was tasked with tricking the other famous housemates into thinking she was just like the others.


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Jump to almost two decades later, and Chantelle has opted for a quieter life these days and is now building her own business. During lockdown, she hit the headlines after joining The Body Shop to earn some extra cash during Covid times - but is now focusing on her own project.

Chantelle, 41, spoke exclusively to Daily Star in collaboration with https://www.wdwbingo.co.uk/ as she discussed her exciting new role away from the spot light and her time at the high street brand.

Chantelle
Chantelle starred on the show in 2006(Image: E4)

The TV star explained: "So basically, during lockdown I was just really bored. Obviously, most things came to a big, big halt. And I was just scrolling through social media at the time, and this thing came up about the Body Shop.

"And as a little girl, I loved the Body Shop, and it was just basically an offer to work from home. So it was never like a job for me as such. It was just something to try and fill my mind with.

"I only did it for a short period of time, but I do love their products. So yeah, I'm excited to have my own thing going on. So yeah, it's a ‘watch this space’ kind of thing.


Chantelle
Chantelle looks worlds apart from her time on CBB(Image: chantelle_houghton/Instagram)

"For as long as I can remember I’ve been into wellness and beauty, and so many people are now into eco-friendly, natural products. I’m also vegan.

"I've been vegetarian since I was seven and I've been vegan for the last 15 years! So I'm going to be launching a wellness brand, beauty-related, very soon. But I can't really talk much about it at the moment, because I’ve not planned the launch yet, etc. So that's what I'm working on at the moment!"


Chantelle also explained to us why she stepped back from the public eye for several years as she was struggling issues in her personal life.

Chantelle
She excited to launch her own project(Image: chantelle_houghton/Instagram)

She told us: "Because I took a massive step back from the public eye, because I had personal, serious things going on. I spent so much time on my own, and a lot of that was like thinking time, like looking after myself, not only like my mental health, my physical health, what you put into your body, what you put on your body. So I had a lot of time in my hands to sort of think about my passions.


"I was the kind of person years ago to be really ignorant. If someone said, ‘I need to find out who I am’ I'd be like, ‘here are you gonna find yourself, like in Tesco's or something?!’

"How ignorant is that? But that's because I was completely emotionally asleep and stunted. But I think when you are forced to spend so much time on your own because of trauma and stuff that you're going through, you only actually have yourself and your thoughts, and I just learned so much about myself and what I stand for.

So I've really put my heart and soul into what I'm creating at the moment. So yeah, I'm really, really excited!"

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