Big Brother drew to a close on Friday night after bringing viewers laughs, tears and plenty of controversial evictions.
Ali Bromley, dubbed 'The Red Witch' in the house, was ultimately crowned the show's winner. Appearing on ITV's Lorraine on Monday morning (November 18), she opened up about the heartbreaking reason she initially signed up for the show.
In the opening moments of the interview, host Lorraine pressed the former housemate on the "sad reason" that led to her involvement on the iconic reality series.
"It was something that I was quite open about on the show," Ali began. "I lost my brother just under two years ago and last year was a terrible year for me so this year I kind of thought let's see what I can do to add joy to my life and have some fun and then I thought, Big Brother, I've watched that. I've been a fan of Big Brother in the past so why not do something strange and unusual?"
She told Lorraine about losing her sibling before appearing on Big Brother (
Ali, who works as a forensic psychologist, said she had no idea she would ultimately win the series and detailed her struggles of feeling like an "outsider" during her time in the house.
"I've been asked a few times what my game plan was and all I said was I just wanted to be myself and that's all I've got really," she said.
She explained that she felt her job on the outside had actually been a negative, telling Lorraine: "I don't think it helped me, I think it did me a bit of a disservice and put me at a disadvantage in some ways.
Ali will give some of her prize money to another housemate (
"In part, because of how I was then perceived by housemates and what their expectations of me were, but also because I told myself I was going in as myself, not as a psychologist but obviously what comes along with that is that I do have my training and my brain does analyse behaviour."
Ali struck up a strong relationship with her fellow housemate Lily and revealed how she would be using her prize money to help her friend achieve a long-time dream: to go to Ibiza.
"Lily's dream is that she wanted to go to Ibiza so I'm going to pay for her trip to Ibiza," Ali shared.
