Speaking to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, Celebrity Big Brother and Benefits Street star Deirdre 'White Dee' Kelly shared she was forced to move home after her TV appearances
'White Dee' revealed she had been forced to move home due to safety concerns after she stayed in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
The Benefits Street star was catapulted straight into the spotlight when she starred in the 2014 Channel 4 five-part series, which documented the lives of the people living on James Turner Street in the Winson Green area of Birmingham.
Following the programme's success, Deirdre Kelly - as she's legally known - settled into the Celebrity Big Brother household but her second reality TV stint had disastrous consequences.
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on the set of This Morning on Tuesday, White Dee revealed that she had been "forced" to leave James Turner Street after her appearance in Celebrity Big Brother as concerns for her and her children's safety were sparked.
"Your life has changed significantly since then", Ben said before trailing off, to which Dee agreed: "It has, it's kind of like a funny story really because, you know, I went to Celebrity Big Brother, I left my house on James Turner Street to go into CBB, came out, we moved."
"So it's like 'oh my God', they've moved me home but I can see why they did it because of, you know, the profile, even for the safety of my kids, really," she added before explaining how her TV fame impacted her son and daughter Caitlin, the latter of which appeared alongside Dee on Benefits Street.
"You bring your kids up going: 'never talk to strangers' and you've got thousands of strangers going: 'is your mum in?'", but in another breath, she admitted to understanding why she was made to leave James Turner Street: "I can kind of see why that's happened but I do miss it because it was home."
But regrets aside, Dee has recently started a campaign to help those in need, benefitting from the platform she was given on TV to spread awareness around her cause. Dee has opened a foodbank and community hub for struggling locals.
"The number of people living rough or who can’t afford to feed their children is spiralling out of control, so I knew I had to do something," she told The Mirror.
"A lot of the people we see here have hit on really hard times, but we’ve created a space where they won’t be judged and can get the supplies and help they need."
"I do it because it’s in my heart and it’s how I was brought up – it’s the idea that nobody is better than anyone else. We’ve all been through tough periods in our lives," the TV personality went on. Dee began delivering food parcels during the Covid pandemic and opened the community space in October, 2023.
