Controversial Benefits Street star White Dee has revealed what life was really like on the "crazy" 2014 show in a candid new interview.
White Dee, also known as Dee Kelly, became renowned as the larger than life maternal figure on James Turner Street, Birmingham where many residents were in receipt of benefits.
Her appearance on the Channel 4 show pushed her into the limelight and she went on to appear on several political debates on benefits and also starred in Celebrity Big Brother.
Dee, 49, told Birmingham Live : "It was just a crazy, crazy time.
"My life was turned upside down and I just wasn't expecting it.
"Benefits Street caused such a storm and the people in James Turner Street were shocked by it and totally overwhelmed.
"A swarm of journalists descended on James Turner Street, not just from the UK but all over the world.
"I found one French journalist in my garden!
"I started putting my voice to the political debates on the radio and TV because I wanted to give a voice to people who were on benefits like myself.
"I even spoke at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham and there were more people listening to me than David Cameron in the room next door."
Dee moved out of James Turner Street shortly after the show and made another area of Birmingham Handsworth her new home.
But she does miss the people from her old road and says she feels sad the show totally transformed her life.
Dee said: "The show ripped apart my life at the time. It changed my life forever and it destroyed the James Turner Street I knew before the show.
"I don't keep in touch with any of the characters featured in the show and in some cases that is a real shame.
"There are still people I do speak to on James Turner Street but none of them appeared on the show."
In 2018 the award winning Birmingham based film Ray and Liz was released and Dee played the older Liz - an opportunity she relished.
After appearing on the show Dee was signed by an agent and taken to sun-kissed party capitals such as Magaluf.
She was regularly pictured in daily tabloid newspapers, taking part in huge bar crawl benders.
But although she was grateful of the free trips abroad for herself and two kids, Caitlin and Gerrard, she says she was forced to be someone she wasn't to portray a certain image to the watching press.
Dee said: "I had an agent at the time and was taking advice from him.
"I was pictured downing shots in Magaluf on one of their famed bar crawls at the time. It made the national tabloids.
"But the thing is those shots only contained water. I was downing shots of water which was snapped by photographers who followed my every move. I don't drink. I only drink tea.
"The papers wanted to slag me off as a boozy mum going abroad to get p***** while on benefits. But all along I was just playing the game. It wasn't me."
In 2014 Dee appeared on Celebrity Big Brother alongside fellow winner of the show and US actor Gary Busey, boxer Audley Harrison, Kellie Maloney and former Strictly Come Dancing star James Jordan.
"I couldn't believe it to be honest. I didn't class myself as a celebrity then and I still don't now so I was just amazed I was placed on it.
"I think they thought I would clash with people in there.
"There was snobbery, people like James Jordan and Claire King from Emmerdale did look down on me at first and pulled me aside for a chat.
"But attitudes changed towards me while I was in there. They warmed to me and I made some good friends while I was in there.
"People like Kelly Maloney, Ricky Guarnaccio, George Gilby and Audley Harrsion. I keep in touch with all of them."
She added: "It was an amazing time. I thought I would be first out but I was never put up for eviction and I finished fifth."
