In January 2016, reality TV history was made when a misunderstanding between Tiffany Pollard and Angie Bowie led to one of the most outrageous Celebrity Big Brother moments ever.
As you probably remember, the saga kicked off when Angie was informed by producers that her ex-husband, David Bowie, had died outside the house.
While Angie initially chose not to tell the rest of the group, she decided to confide in Tiffany, but things took an unexpected turn when the former I Love New York star mistook this to mean that their fellow housemate David Gest had died.
And that’s when things really got chaotic.
Several key figures involved in the scene recently spoke to GQ for an “oral history of Celebrity Big Brother’s ‘David’s dead’ episode”, including Christopher Maloney.
The former X Factor finalist revealed that there was even more to the saga than viewers know about, as later that day, another housemate was briefly removed on medical grounds after they “nearly died”.
“They didn’t show half of what happened afterwards, because we were [then] shocked that David Bowie had passed away,” Christopher told the magazine.
“And they didn’t show the bit where John Partridge made us all steak [for dinner that night]. And Scotty T – who went on to win the show – he was getting red in the face and then purple and then blue. The steak had gotten stuck in his throat and he was choking on it.
“John had to do the Heimlich manoeuvre and the steak flew out of his mouth and then the medics took him away. So he nearly died as well.”
Meanwhile, Darren Day also told GQ that David Gest had left the house earlier that day to undergo medical test, which fuelled the moment even further.
“David was very poorly that day. We thought he had flu or something,” Darren shared.
“On this particular day, David had been taken out of the house for tests. He came back two hours later, and said ‘I’m going for a sleep.’”
He added: “[Tiffany] just came running out screaming ‘David’s dead!’. I just thought, ‘Shit… maybe he has [died]’. I start running towards the bedroom and everyone comes with me.
“So as we ran into the room and looked at his bed, he was in it, but the sheet was pulled up over his head like someone had died.”
After two weeks in the house, David made the decision to leave the house of his own accord for medical reasons. Three months later, it was announced that he had died after suffering a stroke.
Celebrity Big Brother has been off the air for five years, after Channel 5 made the decision not to renew it.
However, Big Brother was revived by ITV2 earlier this year, with a new season of the celebrity version set to air on the main channel ITV1 in 2024.