Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Charlene’s not bossy.. she had to be mum at 21
CHARLENE White’s younger sister Carina has defended her after Boy George accused the star of being a bossy boots in their cooking feud.
Carina said the Loose Women
I remember literally screaming down the phone when Charlene told me she was going into the jungle.
This is the same girl that dropped out of Girl Guides because she didn’t want to go camping. This is the same girl we couldn’t ever get to do anything remotely adventurous on family holidays.
Me on the other hand? Having slight (and I mean ever so slight) middle-child syndrome, I was the rebel, the daredevil, the one who jumped off a cliff and was nearly carried out to sea.
Helping my sister prepare for life in the jungle was a weird experience.
Yes, I was so proud of her, but I also found myself selfishly wondering who was going to be my therapist when she was gone (there’s that middle-child syndrome coming out again – it’s not all about you, Carina).
Sure, she’s been out of the country before, but I’ve always been able to contact her, and she’s always been there for me when I’ve needed her.
Most people will know by now that our mum, Dorrett, died in 2002, aged just 47. I was only 17, Charlene was 21 and my brother was just seven.
Our mum instilled the importance of family and friends in us but it was Charlene that stepped in and became that mother figure to my brother and I.
She’s continued to be there for us to this very day. On the days she wasn’t working and should’ve been out, maybe partying and doing what typical
21-year-olds do, she panellist’s tendency to dominate in the kitchen stems from her stepping into a maternal role following their mother’s death when she was just 21.
Mum Dorrett died from bowel cancer in 2002 when Carina was 17 and their brother was just seven.
was at home helping my dad to raise my brother and I.
Watching her on I’m A Celeb doing what comes naturally to her – being proactive, cooking and assigning tasks to people – reminds me of the many weekends we spent in the kitchen with our mum preparing Sunday dinner, which would always be some sort of Jamaican cuisine.
If we had our friends round, they all had to get up and get involved, you couldn’t say no to my mum.
It’s what we do, it’s what Charlene does. She brings people together with her warmth and her kindness. Her comforting Scarlette and still trying to encourage Baba even while dangling over 30 storeys up in the air is Charlene in a nutshell, putting others first before herself.
The people who know Charlene are well aware that what you see on TV is what you get with her. She’s someone who gets the people around her to work together in difficult circumstances.
She cooks and she instructs while doing so because she’s been communicating that way for half of her life. It’s almost her love language.
Boy George reminds me of me in so many ways – the indecisiveness of wanting some leadership, but not really wanting to be told what to do.
Charlene is not a “contradiction”, her maternal actions aren’t “bossy” – they’re instinctive and proactive. They hold off her restlessness and boredom.
George and the others will get to cook. This was never a stand-off and, in any case, it looks like they’ll be cooking for Matt
Hancock!