THE BIG REALITY OF TV FAME
Big Brother contestant reveals the horrors after being on reality show
IT HAS been 18 years since Lisa Jeynes set foot in the Big Brother house. Back in 2003 the then 35-yearold had been working in events management when she dropped everything for a dare which would see her life turned upside-down.
From an ordinary life to an instant celebrity overnight, such a quick transformation would be a lot for anyone. At its worst it also saw Lisa accused of being born a man and simultaneously named Britain’s most hated woman.
But despite everything since, and the time that has passed, there is still one phrase from Lisa’s time on TV that makes her laugh when she hears it following her around today: “I could kill a person with these two fingers.”
It’s easy to forget just how intense the focus on Big Brother was at the time where Lisa got involved. At a time where there was no Love Island or Ex on the Beach reality TV was new and those who entered had no clue of what was to follow.
For Penarth-born Lisa there was no way she could predict what was to happen when she entered the show’s fourth series weeks after the other contestants.
Lisa, now 52, said: “I applied as a dare. I think that backfired. I was sat with my friend in his office helping him to do rugby promotional stuff and it popped up on the computer. He said: ‘Go on, just for a laugh. We’ll go for a few beers first.’
“We had a liquid lunch and did the video. Looking back now it was hysterical. I had a phone call four days later and I didn’t believe it was them – I actually thought it was one of my friend’s mates winding me up. I put the phone down twice.
“I went in completely blind. In my mind I thought: ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ And it literally did.
“What could possibly go wrong? I was doing psychology so I thought I had it sussed but, no, that wasn’t the case obviously.”
In total Lisa spent two weeks in the Big Brother house. On top of being added to the programme late into the series to “stir things up” things got dramatically worse after she claimed someone leaked a fake birth certificate suggesting she was a transgender woman to boost viewing figures – prompting contestants to try to peek at her under the bathroom door.
Today Lisa holds nothing back when describing her former housemates on the show. She said: “I was put in to stir it up. They told me what to do, what to say, and that’s what I did and then they stitched me up.
“I look back and it’s bittersweet. I’m a very positive person so from that what I took is that I was in the wrong Big Brother. If I had been in the second one or the fifth one or the sixth one I think I would have had more of a chance but the ones I was actually banged up with were the most boring people you’ve ever met.
“It was mind-numbingly boring except for when we got p***ed – then I just kicked off. It’s a lot smaller than it looks as well – the house was tiny.
“It’s bittersweet because I’ve achieved and done and had some of the most amazing experiences as well as some really horrible stuff.”
Despite the abuse Lisa doesn’t deny there were some good times in the years that followed. Rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, the Big Brother star jokes that she’s had her “fill of footballers” over the years, adding: “I just look back at my CV of dating and think: ‘Why? What is wrong with you, Lise?’ I think I went out with every rogue there was.”
But tragically in 2006 things took a turn for the worse when, during a photoshoot set to re-launch Lisa’s career, a photographer and his ladder fell on top of her face while she lay on the floor. In total the devastating accident left her in need of seven operations and reconstructive surgery as well as lasting scars.
In spite of everything that’s happened Lisa today is bubbly, jokey and, above everything else, positive.
For her things are far from over, with an autobiography in the making which she promises will make “EastEnders look boring”.