Two decades ago, she was a little-known reality star after becoming the second housemate to be evicted from the 2002 Big Brother house. But with her larger-than-life personality, Alison Hammond was never going to fade into the shadows. Now, fast forward 21 years and she’s one of daytime TV’s biggest stars, regularly rubbing shoulders with A-listers. But how did she do it?
Humble beginnings
When she applied to enter thehouse, it wasn’t fame that a 27-year-old Alison – who was a holiday rep in Tunisia – was searching… And [everyone was] saying, “You should go on, you’d win it.”’ She added, ‘And at the time, I had a debt of like £3,000, [which] I was traumatised by. Every time I got paid I just couldn’t make that debt go down. So I thought, “Oh that would be a really good idea winning £70,000, going on a TV show.”’
