Bobby Norris and Makosi Musambasi
Makosi Musambasi on her time in the Big Brother house and how having cancer has made her appreciate life
As a massive fan of Big Brother I’m delighted to be celebrating its 20th birthday by chatting to some of the show’s most iconic housemates.
Avid readers of new may have seen my recent interview with Nikki Grahame, and this week I was lucky enough to chat to a legend from the sixth series, Makosi Musambasi.
The 39-year-old hit headlines back in 2005 following her steamy Jacuzzi romp with housemate – and eventual series winner – Anthony Hutton. For those of you too young to remember it the first time around, it led to Makosi heading to the Diary Room to ask for a pregnancy test. Classic!
Fast-forward 15 years and former cardiac nurse Makosi is now a life coach who dishes out advice and interviews experts on her Instagram Live, called Makosi Today.
The star, who’s originally from Zimbabwe, was deported from the UK in 2012 for using a relative’s passport and has since been based in the UAE.
“Of course I miss the UK,” she tells me. “I wish I was driving down the M25 or down the M40. I miss going to Windsor. When
Meghan Markle got married I would have been in Windsor. One day, you never know, I will come back for whatever reason brings me there.”
In 2017, Makosi was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery to remove one of her breasts as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But this tough period only ended up shaping her life and she tells me she’s now full of gratitude and appreciation.
Here, Makosi talks about her struggle against cancer, her memories of being in the Big Brother house, where she finished in third place, and why that session in the Jacuzzi was all part of her game plan…
Hi Makosi. Do you look back on your experience in Big Brother with fond memories?
Oh, with very fond memories and nostalgia. The Makosi who went on Big Brother was a free bird. I look at her today and I’m proud she did that for herself. I get teary when I think about it.
Have you remained in contact with any of your housemates?
I speak to Orlaith [Mcallister] a lot. We like the same things, we read the same books. I think we are the same person, just one is Irish and the other is African!
You made headlines for being the first housemate ever to think she could’ve got pregnant in the house. Do people still talk to you about that now?
[Laughs] Of course, but it just makes me chuckle – it makes me laugh! I would probably be smarter today, but I look at that 25-year-old Makosi and I think, “It was ingenious.” I’d probably have a different game plan today, but that’s what worked. I get people trying to shame me or cyber-bully me about it and I think to myself, “Big Brother wasn’t brain surgery, so why are we majoring with such a minor thing?” It was a gameshow, it had £50,000 at the end of it and each and every housemate had a game plan. Some plans were sillier than others, but my game plan took me right to the end.
It really did! So was the whole pregnancy storyline just a game plan for you?
I couldn’t tell you that I sat down and said, “Oh, I’m going to say
I’m pregnant.” One thing led to another, people were in a Jacuzzi, they did stuff in the Jacuzzi and when you do stuff in the Jacuzzi or on a bed, what happens?
Makosi, you made reality TV history!
[Laughs] I chuckle when I think about it…
You were invited back to take part in Ultimate Big Brother. How did you find your second time in the house?
It wasn’t the same because every time you go through an experience, you grow and you become another person. So by the time I did the Ultimate show, it was 2010 and I was 30. I had experience on my shoulders.
The show’s 20th anniversary is coming up and apparently there will be one episode shown from every series. Will you be watching?
Of course, but I’ll probably watch mine the most! Now I’m looking at things through the lens of a life coach, so it will be interesting.
How has life been for you during the pandemic?
I thrive when I’m alone and I don’t have too much stimuli, so it’s not as hectic for me as I’m hearing people say. The only thing is, you can’t get your nails done, you can’t get your hair done, but aside from that, I’m doing quite well. I stopped subscribing to everything on television – I don’t even have Netflix. I’d watch CNN and literally the figures were going up. I realised that as the figures go up, the less I’m practising my gratitude exercises at night and in the morning.
How do you practise gratitude? Is it a big thing for you?
It’s not just a big thing, it’s everything. I wake up in the morning and there’s a book I use called The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. It’s a 28-day gratitude exercise. I pick a thing to be grateful for every day. I have relationships with my mum, dad, friends and I’m grateful for that. You know, when I went to learn how to skydive, we were taught to look at what you’re going to dive into. So when you’re jumping out of a plane, you have to use your peripheral vision. Once you look at a building or an electricity pole, you’re going to jump into it. If you focus on the good and you focus on gratitude, that’s what you’re going to attract and you’re going to see more of that which you’re focusing on.
Has skydiving become a passion of yours?
So what happened is that I had breast cancer in 2017. And I had a mastectomy and chemotherapy. I lost my hair and I almost lost my identity. And when I was doing my radiation, I was looking for that thing to give me back my confidence again. Because at this point you’re looking in the mirror, you’re bald and you don’t know who this new person is. Where did the confidence go? Where did the courage go? Where did the lioness in me go? I realised that you cultivate confidence by action, so I found a skydiving school and I jumped the first time tandem with someone. It was the worst decision of my life by the way, because I’d been having radiation and then on the side that had the mastectomy – when we jumped out and the harness yanked on me it was so painful. But when I landed on the ground, I realised that I get to choose my narrative. Cancer is not going to define me, cancer won’t make me hide.
How did you find out you had cancer?
I found a lump in August 2016 and, you know, Africans, we can be very religious, so I just prayed. When it wasn’t going away, in January 2017, I decided to see someone. Because of my nursing background,
I was directly involved in my treatment. I made most of the decisions, like, “We’re doing a mastectomy. It’s not going to be double. It’s not going to be this.”
And you’ve come out of all of this and now you’re a life coach…
I think my life has prepared me to do what I do now. Having gone on Big Brother and having experienced racism and then cancer, I realised just how resilient I am. I decided to go to a coaches’ training institution in Dubai. When people come to me for coaching, I’m not coaching them out of a book. I think I’m just sharing – I can see myself in them.