I wish I could salvage my childhood, admits Brian
Salvage Squad star says he regrets his rush to leave Ireland as he came to terms with growing up gay
PRESENTER Brian Dowling has admitted he blew his Big Brother winnings on designer gear – but says fatherhood and his earlymorning commuter lifestyle have transformed him into a more sensible spender.
Dowling – whose adopted daughter Blake recently celebrated her first birthday – won £70,000 (€80,200) from his stint on the reality TV show back in 2001, a sum he says felt like a fortune at the time.
The Kildare native is fronting a new home makeover show, The Salvage Squad on Virgin Media, which debuts this month.
He tells the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I won 70 grand. But the strangest thing is if I was to make 10 million quid tomorrow – at 45 – I will never feel as rich as I did when I won 70 grand at 23. I was renting at the time. I was kind of single. I was 23 and to suddenly have all that money was incredible.
‘I’m going to say, honestly, at least half was spent on travelling, holidays, turning left, turning right, designer clothes… I remember I went into Gucci and I bought a belt with my name on it. There was this big massive Brian on the belt. I had D&G jeans, tons of all these designer pieces…’
While he was quick to splash his cash in the feverish aftermath of his Big Brother triumph, Brian
‘To suddenly have all that money was incredible’
says he still has all his designer gear from the time – ‘my jumpers, my jeans, my belts, my bags’.
And two decades later, he has settled into a more normal existence, getting up early to commute to his job as a radio presenter in Dublin from the home in Straffan, Co. Kildare, which he shares with his husband – Dancing With The Stars judge Arthur Gourounlian – and baby Blake.
Looking back at his reality TV days as Big Brother returns to ITV, Brian recalls: ‘With Big Brother coming back, I’ve been looking back to when I was on the show.
‘First of all, I was way too loud, way too annoying,’ he laughs, adding: ‘Very different times.’
It’s a far cry from his current life, which he says ‘involves getting up at 5am every morning. I put on a high-vis jacket and I get the bus and train to Dublin for 98FM.’
It may be a world away from his reality TV days, but Brian insists: ‘I am loving every minute of it.’
As well as his radio show, Brian is looking forward to returning to TV as the host of The Salvage Squad. And he admits he didn’t have to think twice when he was approached about the presenting job.
‘In April I got approached by Virgin offering me The Salvage Squad.
‘In the type of job that I do, when you don’t have to screen test you just say “yes” straight away. I was like, “what do you want me to do? Shovel s*** on a farm? I’ll do it.”’
According to Brian, the new programme is a perfect fit for him as he is ‘obsessed’ with home makeover shows.
But he adds: ‘The difference with our show is it is sustainable. The designers cannot buy anything new; they have a budget of €1,000 and they have three days to do it.
‘People choose something in their home that is jaded or damaged. And then that is sent away and it’s upcycled and honestly when they come back and they look at it, it’s incredible.
‘It’s a piece of furniture or something they love, like a clock or a chair.’
And with his growing work demands and fatherhood, Brian jokes that he could do with a makeover himself.
‘The only upcycler I need is my plastic surgeon,’ he says. Retrospectively, he admits he would like to ‘salvage my time’
‘The upcycler I need is my plastic surgeon’
and wind back the clock to his childhood.
‘My time growing up with other kids, I kind of think because they knew that I was gay, I wanted to get away. I just wanted to get out. I wanted to leave, maybe just the whole experience of growing up in Ireland and being a gay kid.
‘I tried to wish that away, and now I wish I hadn’t. I kind of wish those years I wished away I could have back, but I also realise how lucky I am to have the life that I’ve had. I spend so much time with my friends and family.’
One such family gathering was a recent celebration to mark their daughter Blake’s first birthday.
Brian’s younger sister Aoife acted as a surrogate for the couple so they could become fathers, and the pair documented the difficulties they had to overcome before their baby’s joyful arrival in their documentary, Brian And Arthur’s Very Modern Family.
He says of the party: ‘It started out as a quiet affair for family and friends. Then it escalated… Then it escalated very quickly!
‘There was a safari theme, and there was champagne. There was a big bouncy castle. But the first birthday is always for the parents!’ he laughs.