Needless to say, the whole world was shocked and saddened when news broke out on Sunday that legendary musician David Bowie had passed away. It has since been confirmed that David had been battling cancer for the past 18 months and died peacefully on Sunday “surrounded by his family.”
And while the news spread like wildfire through various social media sites, David’s ex-wife Angie Bowie was one of the last to hear the news. This is because Angie is currently participating in Celebrity Big Brother, which means she has no connection to the outside world. However her representatives reportedly informed Angie, who was married to David from 1970 to 1980, a few hours after the tragedy. Surprisingly, Angie has decided to continue to participate in the celebrity reality competition.
In a statement to Channel 5 News Angie’s representatives explained, “Following the very sad news of David Bowie’s death, we can now confirm that Angie Bowie has been informed off camera by her representatives. She has taken the decision to continue in the programme.” The statement went on to explain, “The decision to remain in the House is entirely her choice, and she has been given the option to leave at any time if she changes her mind. Appropriate support will be available to Angie at any time if needed.”
It has only been a week since Angie’s season of Celebrity Big Brother began and it is scheduled to continue on until February.
Angie Bowie, Statement:
Following the very sad news of David Bowie’s death, we can now confirm that Angie Bowie has been informed off camera by her representatives.
She has taken the decision to continue in the programme.
The decision to remain in the House is entirely her choice, and she has been given the option to leave at any time if she changes her mind. Appropriate support will be available to Angie at any time if needed.
But things on Celebrity Big Brother took a wrong misunderstanding turn as Tiffany Pollard thought Angie Bowie was talking about David Gest not Bowie.
Tiffany Pollard ended up in hysterics on Tuesday night’s Celebrity Big Brother after mishearing Angie Bowie’s sad news that her ex-husband David had died.
Angie, who was married to David for 10 years, was told off camera about the singer’s passing on Sunday from cancer, before deciding to remain in the CBB house.
While she initially agreed with close friends in the house, David Gest and John Partridge, to keep the news to themselves, Angie decided to tell Tiffany, only for the US reality star to mishear her housemate and think Gest had died.
After initially agreeing to keep Bowie’s death secret, Angie ended up confiding in Tiffany as she struggled to come to terms with the shocking news of the singer’s passing.
Angie said: ‘You gotta do me a favour, you can’t say a word. David’s dead.’
As Tiffany’s started shrieking, Angie appealed to her to calm down: ‘I love you… stop it! They’re all gonna know.’
A stunned Tiffany replied: ‘You’re playing, I know you’re joking.’
Still thinking they were discussing Bowie, Angie said: ‘Are you crazy? Would I do something like that to you?
‘It just happened now, cancer. Please stay calm… This was not what I planned to do.’
Getting more upset by the second, Tiffany then declared: ‘We got to get everyone together…I feel sick, I need a drink.’
Angie conceded: ‘This is not going well…
Earlier, viewers saw David Bowie’s ex-wife tell Big Brother in the diary room: ‘I haven’t seen him in so many years I can’t make a big drama about it… but I feel an era has ended, it’s so very sad.’
She then understandably burst into tears as she was comforted by her fellow Housemates David Gest and John Partridge as she explained: ‘The stardust is gone.’
While Angie returned to the Diary Room after telling Tiffany the news, Tiffany rushed out in the garden to fill her housemates in on what she thought had happened.
Hysterical Tiffany shouted: ‘I can’t keep this a secret, she told me not to tell anybody… I’m not able to not tell anyone.
‘I hope she’s just joking but she said she’s not, she told me that David is dead.’
A horrified Danniella Westbrook tried to reason with her: ‘Where’s David?’
Tiffany yelled: ‘Why the f**k would she say that?’
The housemates swiftly rushed into the bedroom, where they found out Gest was alive.
Tiffany said: ‘David she just told me that you’re dead!’
Darren Day then tried to calm the situation, telling Tiffany to ‘chill’, while Stephanie Davis kept Angie away from the situation which was quickly escalating.
Retreating to the diary room, Angie told Big Brother: ‘It’s a mess! It’s a comedy of errors. I forgot that she screams, she started screaming. She didn’t know who I was talking about.’
‘She started giving me this look like I as an idiot because I looked like I was crying. I looked like I was so weak and stupid that I was crying because I was sick. My pride made me not handle it correctly, yet again it developed into another drama.’
Meanwhile out in the main house, there was still confusion among the housemates, with Danniella saying of Angie: ‘That’s f**king sick, she needs to be taken out of here. Speaking ill of other people like that.’
It was left to John to set the record straight, gathering everyone together and saying: ‘It’s not my place to tell you this, there’s nothing to freak out about, Angie has had some news. She;s misunderstood the name, that’s all I’m gonna say. It’s the wrong David honey.’
Tiffany insisted that she hadn’t made a mistake, pointing out that it ‘says in my contract that you get no outside information, so how did she pick up a newspaper and hear that Bowie died?’
Darren and Danniella again attempted to calm the situation, pointing out that ‘someone is grieving.’
Angie eventually left the diary room, insisting ‘it’s on tape, I said David not David Gest, but I didn’t say, Bowie,’ while the housemates debated how to move on from the situation, with John insisting of Tiff ‘she has to go…we can’t be having this stress.’
He went with Gemma Collins and Jonathan Cheban to find Tiffany in the bathroom, confronting the US reality star by telling her: ‘People are either disgusted, freaked out or scared…people are saying they will leave if you stay.’
‘That’s too f**king bad because I’m not gonna leave,’ a defiant Tiffany, who was granted immunity by Jonathan for this week’s eviction, told them, repeating her stance in the diary room. ‘They’re gonna have to get me evicted because I’m not just gonna walk off, I’m not a quitter.’
After keeping her distance for much of the day, Tiffany later apologised to Angie for her outburst, after Gest persuaded her that ‘life’s too short.’
‘I’m so sorry about what happened earlier, you didn’t do anything wrong I was just really confused,’ a tearful Tiffany told Angie.
Meanwhile, Darren comforted Angie, telling her: ‘The world will be grieving and you’ve got your own personal grief going on in here, which is hard for you.’
Later in the diary room, Darren summed up the whole ‘crazy’ day, admitting: ‘I promise you on my childrens’ lives, when I ran in and saw the shape and pulled the covers back over his head there was a moment, it might have been a split second or it might have been 30 seconds, when I thought David Gest had died.’
Shocked viewers were soon tweeting about the unbelievable scenes, with many celeb fans of CBB posting their disbelief after watching the ‘comedy of errors.’
Meanwhile, former NBA star Lamar Odom (who was also fighting for his life and is continuing to work on his recovery) has been given some good news surrounding his overdose that happened back in October. Despite making some miraculous strides in his rehabilitation, Lamar was in critical condition when he was found unconscious at the Bunny Love Ranch in Las Vegas. It was later determined that Lamar had taken excess amounts of herbal Viagra, as well as cocaine.
So, while Lamar has a hard battle ahead of him to regain his health, he was fortunately given a pass when it comes to the legal situation surrounding his OD. On Monday morning a spokesperson for the Nye County District Attorney revealed that although “evidence showed Mr. Odom had metabolized cocaine in his system while he was present in Nye County in October of 2015, he was not found in the possession of cocaine and it is unlikely it could established beyond a reasonable doubt he actually ingested, or was impaired by the drug during the time he was within the jurisdiction of Nye County.”
According to former lawyer and host of TMZ Live Harvey Levin, it is not common for charges to be pressed in situations like Lamar’s, where he was left in severely critical condition. However, many were speculating that perhaps the legal system would be taking a different route considering Lamar’s notoriety. Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case, and Lamar can now focus solely on healing and establishing a new normal for himself.
Last week, Lamar was photographed leaving the hospital for the first time and entering a private rehabilitation center in the Los Angeles area.
Hopefully, this legal burden being lifted off Lamar’s shoulders helps him make further strides towards a healthier life and further appreciate the second chance he has been given.