Irish one-two as Coleen Nolan beats Jedward to win Celebrity Big Brother

Hot favourites Jedward had been tipped to win the live television final

Winner Coleen Nolan during the Big Brother 2017 final at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Photograph: Ian West/PA
Winner Coleen Nolan during the Big Brother 2017 final at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Photograph: Ian West/PA

Coleen Nolan, who first came to prominence as the youngest member of the Irish family group The Nolans, won Celebrity Big Brother on Friday night.

Beating Irish duo Jedward into second place, she described her second experience on CBB as “absolutely horrendous”.

The former Loose Women star said her second time on the show was “much worse” than her 2012 appearance because of the “brutal” tests that creators put in front of the housemates.

Jedward are evicted to come  second  during the Celebrity Big Brother 2017 final at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, on Friday night. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire
Jedward are evicted to come second during the Celebrity Big Brother 2017 final at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, on Friday night. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire

“They were relentless,” she told presenter Emma Willis. “There was something every day and it was always negative. The way some people left ... it was fun before. Nobody knows how to play the game better than Big Brother.”

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But after 32 days in the Channel 5 house, Nolan, who joined the show when it launched last month, could not help bursting into tears as her name was announced.

Describing her victory as “the best feeling of my life,” she confessed that she did not feel she deserved to win because she had been “so boring”.

The series finale on Friday night saw the final six contestants evicted one by one with a live public vote.

Nolan beat pop twins Jedward to the top spot, who joked that “Coleen needs this in her life right now ... so she can write that she lived with Jedward.”

In third place was TV cleaning guru Kim Woodburn who was challenged over her angry outbursts and controversial attitude throughout her time in her house. “If I hadn’t decided to be an old crab, they would have ground me down,” she told Willis.

First to leave the show on Friday was Bianca Gascoigne, followed by Nicola McLean, then James Cosmo, before the finalists were revealed.