Chantelle Houghton's Biography

Chantelle Houghton from Wickford in Essex was the only non-celebrity in the Big Brother house in Celebrity Big Brother in 2006. And yet she won!

Chantelle was born in Basildon in February 1983. Before going into Celebrity Big Brother, she had a part time job on a make-up counter in London's West End.

In order to stay in the Big Brother house, Chantelle was given a secret mission to pretend to be with a fictional band, Kandy Floss. She was allowed to stay in Big Brother when in a task the celebrities ranked her more famous than Preston and Maggot.

Chantelle is from Essex and before Big Brother lived with her mum Vivian and her step-dad Dean.

Chantelle left Bromfords School in Wickford when she was 16, and took an office job and then worked at a bank.

Chantelle was bullied at school and so she has helped to launch Bullywatch London, which is backed by the charity Beatbullying.

Whilst Chantelle started to pursue a career in modelling, she also worked in The Duke, a pub in Wickford, whose regulars include her father, Alan, who is a cabbie.

Chantelle Houghton, who was with a model agency for being a Paris Hilton lookalike before Celebrity Big Brother, is 5'7" with a 24" waist, a 34C bust, 34" hips and blue eyes.

She can't stand snoring but likes Mexican food and the colour pink. Chantelle is afraid of snakes and spiders. Her favourite clothes shop is Brazen Hussy in Leigh-on-Sea and her favourite book is Victoria Beckham's Learning to Fly. Chantelle supports Arsenal and appeared on Soccer AM wearing an Arsenal top.

She got into the last twelve of Miss Greater London. Back in 2004 she appeared on Page 3 of the Daily Star.

Although, when Chantelle was in the Big Brother house, after telling the housemates that she had been seen by the whole country naked because she was a Page 3 girl, she quickly retracted when she started to receive criticism - saying 'course, I haven't'.

Chantelle's dates before going into Big Brother included Ricci Golding and boyfriend of four years, Gary Scott.

Chantelle Houghton told Davina McCall in the interview after she won Celebrity Big Brother that she would stay the same and that she didn't know how to change and that she intended to stay in touch with Preston (on a just good friends basis) and Jodie Marsh.

However, it seemed soon afterwards that Chantelle was not staying in touch with Jodie and that she was so close to Preston that he split up with his girlfriend.

After a marathon of rumours, in April 2006 Chantelle, who was at the New Woman Beauty Awards at the Dorchester Hotel, announced that she and Preston were getting married. On 25 August 2006 Preston and Chantelle married at Dartmouth House in Mayfair, London.

A camera crew followed Chantelle Houghton when she left the Big Brother house for a six-part E4 documentary called Chantelle: Living the Dream.

Chantelle came second in The Independent's list of Britain's happiest people.

In May 2006 Chantelle signed a £300,000 deal with Random House to publish her autobiography.

Living The Dream by Chantelle Houghton was published in October 2006.

In January 2007, Chantelle Houghton appeared on Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth holding her dog Beetlejuice.

In June 2007, Chantelle and Preston announced that they were splitting up. Their statement said: "No one else is involved in our decision ... We hope we can always remain friends and still love each other, but we both think we put so much pressure on one another to make our marriage work that it has ended up destroying our relationship."

In November 2007 Chantelle and Preston were officially divorced.

In February 2008, the Daily Mail quoted Chantelle describing how bad her marriage had been:

"I wasn't allowed to watch soaps or TV after 8.30pm - that was talking time.

"I wasn't allowed make-up. Now can you see why I'm piling it on all the time."

In March 2008 in an interview with Now! magazine, Chantelle Houghton talked about her liaison with Tony Richardson, who was Jennifer Ellison's ex-fiance.

Since then Chantelle Houghton started dating Jermain Defoe.

Chantelle Houghton was scheduled to appear on BBC3's Snog, Marry or Avoid? on February 16, 2009.

In 2010 Chantelle returned to the Big Brother house - this time as one of the ultimate housemates. The Big Brother producers had also made Preston an ultimate housemate.

Chantelle came third in the Ultimate Big Brother.

In 2011, Chantelle split up with Rav Wilding.

In November 2011, it was reported that Chantelle Houghton and Alex Reid were expecting a child.

In June 2012, she gave birth to a girl, called Dolly.