Celebrity Big Brother bosses have weirdly confirmed the first housemate for the new series in January.
Channel 5 usually keep the Celebrity Big Brother lineup secret until the launch day, although an announcement was made earlier confirming a housemate.
Channel 5 today revealed the first celebrity who’ll enter the famous house in January.
The statement read: “We can confirm that journalist Rachel Johnson, will be one of the female Celebrity Big Brother housemates entering the Celebrity Big Brother house live at 9pm, Tuesday 2nd January 2018 on Channel 5.”
Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel is the first housemate to be confirmed for Celebrity Big Brother 2018.
The 52-year-old has worked for the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph, as well as an editor of The Lady from 2009 until 2012.
Rachel wrote in her Mail On Sunday column: “I am a firm believer that you only regret the things in life you don’t do, not the things you do do.
“I’ve never sat down and watched CBB in the way my children religiously binge-watch it, but when Channel 5 came calling, I didn’t delete the annual email asking me to be on. It was because this one said that the new series was all about female empowerment and 100 years since women got the vote.
“It was going to be called Big Sister (it’s ended up being called Celebrity Big Brother: Year Of The Woman), with a “classy” all-female line-up for the launch. Female politicians, performance artists, broadcasters. Serious stuff. Big names were duly dropped, and the emphasis on “empowerment” rather than “ritual humiliation” promised.”
No more celebrities have been confirmed by Channel 5, although a lot have been rumoured.
The Apprentice 2017 candidate Andrew Brady has been tipped to enter the house.
Other tipped celebrities include Tattoo Fixers’ Paisley Billings, Love Island’s Jonny Mitchell, Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel, the UK’s first transgender newsreader India Willoughby, American R&B singer Ginuwine and Made In Chelsea’s Louise Thompson.
Celebrity Big Brother will launch the new series with an all-female cast of celebrity housemates in a salute to a centenary of women’s suffrage on Channel 5.
Hosted by Emma Willis, the show will initially explore how the all-female housemates interact, from politicians to performing artists, as they enter the house first, ahead of the celebrity male housemates.
Celebrity Big Brother 2018 launches on Channel 5 on 2 January at 9PM.