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Incredible story on housemates' reaction to ‘David’s Dead’ moment as Celebrity Big Brother returns tonight

Home> Entertainment> TV

Published 09:40 7 Apr 2025 GMT+1

Incredible story on housemates' reaction to ‘David’s Dead’ moment as Celebrity Big Brother returns tonight

I fear we will never live to see a moment as iconic as ‘David’s Dead’ again

Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper

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Celebrity Big Brother is back on our screens tonight (7 April) which means we get to spend several weeks watching famous and semi-famous people locked up in a house together.

This year's line-up appears pretty promising, with the likes of JoJo Siwa, actor Mickey Rourke, and Love Island alum Chris Hughes among the stars set to head into the house.

However, I fear that no matter the caliber of housemates entering those fabled sliding doors will ever be able to live up to perhaps the most recognised moment in CBB history.

We are, of course, talking about the infamous 'David's dead' moment.

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On 10 January 2016, musical icon David Bowie would pass away from liver cancer while his ex-wife Angie was taking part in the series.

I can hear this image (Channel 5)
I can hear this image (Channel 5)

Angie was pulled into the diary room to be given the devastating news, with the 75-year-old understandably emotional by her former partner's death and confided in fellow housemate Tiffany Pollard.

However, there was just one problem. David Gest.

After hearing the words 'David's dead', Tiffany immediately assumed Angie was referring to the film producer, who was unwell and sleeping in the next room.

Watch the clip below to relive the chaos and drama of 'David's dead' all over again:

After nearly collapsing in horror, Tiffany then refused to keep the information a secret as she had promised and ran out into the garden to share the news, prompting others to believe their housemate had passed away.

The housemates ran to Gest's bed to check on him, finding him slightly unwell but alive.

Angie then explained that it was a huge mix-up, saying: "David... My ex-husband!"

The moment was so far-fetched that Big Brother narrator Marcus Bentley later revealed that he thought it was fake, underlining just how chaotic the whole scenario was.

And it didn't end there either.

After leaving the house singer Christopher Maloney explained how the fallout continued off-screen and nearly included death by steak.

"They didn’t show half of what happened afterwards," he explained in an interview with GQ.

David Gest would eventually leave the house on medical grounds, passing away months later (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
David Gest would eventually leave the house on medical grounds, passing away months later (Karwai Tang/WireImage)

"And they didn’t show the bit where John Partridge made us all steak and Scotty T was getting red in the face and then purple and then blue. The steak had gotten stuck in his throat and he was choking on it."

Darren Day added that Gest had recently left the house to undergo medical tests, making Tiffany's misunderstanding seem all the more real.

"On this particular day, David had been taken out of the house for tests. He came back two hours later, and said 'I’m going for a sleep'," he recalled.

"[Tiffany] just came running out screaming ‘David’s dead!’. I just thought, ‘S**t… maybe he has [died].

"As we ran into the room and looked at his bed, he was in it, but the sheet was pulled up over his head like someone had died."

Tragically, Gest would later pass away in 2016, just a few months after his Big Brother appearance.

Celebrity Big Brother returns tonight (7 April) at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 5

Topics: Big Brother, Entertainment, TV, Celebrity Big Brother

Brenna Cooper
Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper is a journalist at LADbible. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer for Digital Spy, where she wrote about all things TV, film and showbiz. Her favourite topics to cover are music, travel and any bizarre pop culture.

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@_brencoco

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