In 2006 it looked like life was on the up for Pete Bennett. He’d just been crowned the winner of Big Brother and was very much in demand.
But it seems he’s fallen on hard times.
In an appearance on ITV’s The Jeremy Kyle Show, Pete revealed that after winning the show he ended up homeless and hooked on drugs.
In a video clip from the show he said: “The work dried up pretty fast, no one would touch me with a barge pole because I was to do with Big Brother. I lost it all.”
Pete Bennett winning Big Brother (Yui Mok/PA)
“It all kind of went wrong, it didn’t go to plan. I had all that money and I didn’t know what to do with it. I put it on the wrong things. I was homeless after having so much money, it’s easy come, easy go. The fame pushed me in a way I didn’t want to go, I didn’t like it.”
He went on to reveal that he became hooked on ketamine: “I got into drugs 15 years ago, I’ve always been a party animal, I was addicted to ketamine. I went to get proper help for my addiction.”
Pete has also suffered from Tourette’s syndrome since he was a child.
But the former reality TV star said he is trying to get his life back on track. He told Jeremy: “I’m in a better place than I am, it would be nice to have my mates here and all that, I’ve been through a lot of loss. I’ve got into acting and I’ve got into films, my Tourette’s has calmed down … Hollywood is next.”
