Big Brother 2 winner Brian Dowling has been back in the spotlight this week following the reality show's 20th anniversary spin-off series Best Show Ever hitting screens.
His very public media spat with the show's producers, which last night encompassed former host Davina McCall, has also highlighted his claims that the show left him suffering from "a lot of mental health issues".
The 42-year-old, who beat Helen Adams to win series two of the show in 2001 and was also the show's first openly gay winner, then went on to win Ultimate Big Brother in 2010.
He was so popular on the show that he was offered the chance to host the show in 2011 and was at the helm of six series before he was axed in 2013.
However, he claimed that the way he was treated by the show left him struggling with his mental health.
In a long Instagram post he wrote: "I found out from The Sun newspaper that I was being fired and replaced, and it took the production company a further four weeks to confirm that, without a single thank you or apology, phone call, text or email or even a bunch of flowers or a single question asking how I was.
“My whole time on the show as a host was tainted by how I was treated and it still affects me today.”
He added: "When I was fired I was hurt, upset and publicly humiliated. My mental health and confidence has suffered terribly for the last seven years because of that and other events that occurred whilst I was the host."
He also spoke about how being axed from BB had affected his career, saying: "My career came to a halt because I could not even consider working on television for a good number of years after that and my reputation damaged."
And he also lashed out at backlash from fans that had refused to appear on the show, which intensified when Davina McCall tweeted to confirm that he had been asked.
"I think that is a very good reason why I did not want to film a 10-second clip, and you have no idea of what really went on seven years ago and what I went through at the time."
He also lashed out at backlash from fans that had refused to appear on the show, which intensified when Davina McCall tweeted to confirm that he had been asked.
“The same production company asked me if I wanted to film a 10-second message on my phone saying hello to you and Rylan," he wrote.
"Surprisingly, I didn’t really feel like doing that.”
Since 2014, Dowling has presented the TV3 game show Sitting On A Fortune in Ireland and in 2020, he appeared in the fourth series of the Irish edition of Dancing With The Stars - Dowling was paired with Laura Nolan.
Earlier this year, Brian and professional skater Kai Widdrington were announced by RTE (Radio Television of Ireland) as the first male same-sex dance partners on the show, which happened during the series' switch-up week.
