Kim Woodburn

Early life and career

Born in 1942 in Eastney, Portsmouth, as a child Patricia was fascinated by her grandmother, a charwoman, who taught her how to clean. She moved to Liverpool in early adulthood. She undertook many jobs in her adult life. She worked for a time as a social worker to teenage girls also as a member of staff in children's homes in Liverpool, in retail, and as a Littlewoods model in Liverpool in the late 1960s. In 1983, she made her first appearance on television on Pebble Mill at One, demonstrating knitwear. This was her only television appearance for the next 20 years, while she worked as a house cleaner in the UK and US.

How Clean is Your House?

In 2002, Woodburn auditioned for Channel 4, while earning £1,000 a month as a cleaner. Woodburn was hired as a co-presenter of new show How Clean is Your House? with Aggie MacKenzie, which began in February 2003, and eventually became the highest paid Channel 4 female presenter. At the age of 61, Woodburn was trebuched into stardom as the show became an instant success. From August - September 2009, the sixth and final series of How Clean is Your House? was aired. From 2007 - 2009, Woodburn filmed a version of How Clean is Your House in Canada, called Kim's Rude Awakenings. In August 2009, Woodburn announced to Now Magazine that she would not be making any further series of How Clean Is Your House? and Channel 4 announced soon afterwards that the show would be cancelled.

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!

In November 2009, Woodburn was announced as a contestant for the ninth series of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!. She finished as runner-up to TV chef, Gino D'Acampo. Her success on I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!, led to a stand in role as host of This Morning.

Big Brother UK and Celebrity Big Brother

In 2011, Woodburn became a regular panelist on the Big Brother spin-off show, Big Brother's Bit on the Side. In November 2011, she entered the Big Brother house to set a shopping task which she also judged, while berating the housemates for their lack of hygiene.

On 13 January 2017, Woodburn entered the Celebrity Big Brother house to participate as a housemate in its nineteenth series, entering on Day 11. After entering the house, she clashed with fellow new housemates Jessica Cunningham and Chloe Ferry after Ferry accidentally splashed her with water. She had arguments with James Jordan who mocked her for being a cleaner. She also clashed with Spencer Pratt and occasionally his wife Heidi Montag, whom she referred to as "evil" and "rotten pigs". The series was dominated by her multiple arguments with Nicola McLean. On Day 15, Jamie O'Hara intervened in an argument between Woodburn and McLean, which resulted in security entering the house and Woodburn was ordered to sleep in a separate room for the night.

Woodburn was immune from nominations during her first week in the house but was eventually nominated to face every eviction by her housemates. On Day 32 (The Final), Woodburn was evicted and finished in third place with 14.52% of the final vote. Despite this, she left to a chorus of boos from the crowd, some of her former housemates could be seen jeering her on a screen behind her. Emma Willis was criticized for being rude towards her during her interview and for not reprimanding McLean, who had finished in fifth place earlier in the evening, about an apparent insensitive comment she made about Woodburn being childless.

On February 6, 2017, Woodburn appeared on This Morning where she was chastised by Philip Schofield over her behaviour in the house, Woodburn did not take Schofield's criticism lightly and scolded him for not being impartial. She also criticized her ex-housemate Coleen Nolan, a friend of Schofield's and disagreed with her winning the series.

Other ventures

In 2006, Woodburn wrote an autobiography, Unbeaten, which detailed her early life. She used this book to reveal that in February 1966, when she was 23 years old, she gave birth to baby, three months prematurely, who was a stillborn. This revelation led to a police investigation, which she readily assisted with.

From December 2007 - January 2008, Woodburn appeared in the pantomime, Cinderella, with TV co-star Aggie MacKenzie, at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. They played the Ugly Sisters. Since then, she has appeared in various pantomimes all over the country, but without Aggie MacKenzie.

In March 2010 she appeared in Celebrity Come Dine With Me on Channel 4 alongside Claire Sweeney, Darren Day and Tom O'Connor.

In February 2013, Woodburn teamed up with chef, Rosemary Shrager, and the pair appeared on the fifth series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief as contestants. They danced to "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" by Marilyn Monroe. They were eliminated by the panel of judges.

In 2014, Woodburn appeared as a contestant on one of The Chase Celebrity Specials. A famous blooper was made during her appearance when she selected the wrong answer, by accident - she intended to select answer C, but instead selected answer A.

In March 2016, Woodburn took part in the second series of Famous, Rich and Homeless for BBC1. Her controversial comments on the lives of rough sleepers and some of them that she met, led to a big dispute between her, the public and the other volunteers on the show.

In April 2016, Woodburn and her husband, Pete, appeared on Channel 4's A Place in the Sun: Winter Sun in order to find a holiday home on the glamorous Costa del Sol, which was to be their home during the winter months. Their budget was £320,000 and they were shown five two-three bedroom penthouses.

Personal life

Woodburn says that she was constantly beaten by her mother throughout her childhood and neglected by her father, who, she claims, later attempted to molest her as a teenager. Woodburn has one sister and one brother, and several half-sisters and half-brothers born to her mother and various men. Her mother died in 2000.

After leaving home and moving from job to job, aged 23, she became pregnant by her then boyfriend. He soon left her. In February 1966 she gave birth three months prematurely to a stillborn boy. Terrified of the stigma of being an unmarried mother and alone, she buried the baby's body in a nearby park. After this, she changed her forename to Kim to try to break with her past.

Her first marriage to a policeman ended in divorce in the 1970s. She has been married to Peter since 1979, who is also a former police officer and four years her senior. They never had any children together. They own two properties, one in Old Oxted, Surrey, the other in Crowborough, East Sussex.