Latest news with #Unbeaten:TheStoryofMyBrutalChildhood
Boston Globe
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Kim Woodburn, British TV's no-nonsense ‘Queen of Clean,' dies at 83
Advertisement She was 60 years old at the time, and she nailed the audition, which involved scrutinizing a young woman's grimy flat in West London. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Well, this is a flaming comic opera, isn't it,' Ms. Woodburn declared in the woman's terrifyingly filthy kitchen, as she recalled in her 2006 memoir, 'Unbeaten: The Story of My Brutal Childhood.' 'You look so clean yourself, and yet you live like this. Talk about fur coat, no knickers!' Her salty slang was one of the great pleasures of the show, which a Lifetime network executive once described as 'Queer Eye' meets 'Absolutely Fabulous' meets 'The Weakest Link.' The network imported the series to the United States for a few seasons. Ms. Woodburn, usually clad in a crisp white uniform and rubber gloves trimmed with pink feathers -- one reviewer described her as a cross between Mother Teresa and the British madam Miss Whiplash -- would shame and bully hapless homemakers week after week: 'Don't be a mucky puppy underfoot!' 'Scrub, dear, don't tickle!' 'What in the name of normal is all this?' Advertisement MacKenzie, wearing a white lab coat, played scientist, taking samples from sticky counters, from which she always seemed to discover evidence of E. coli, bubonic plague or toxic mold spores. Maggots were a recurring theme. Oprah Winfrey devoted an episode of her show to the pair, and they wrote a housekeeping manual -- a bestseller in Britain. Their show ran from 2003 to 2009 (the American version ran from 2004 to 2006) and spawned 'Too Posh to Wash,' a spinoff about personal hygiene. One of its six episodes featured a woman who never laundered her bra. The co-stars were an irresistible team, though Ms. Woodburn -- 'camp as Christmas,' as The Telegraph described her -- was the standout. After the series ended, she appeared on 'I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here' (in which celebrities are 'trapped' in a 'jungle'; Ms. Woodburn came in second) and 'Celebrity Come Dine With Me' (celebrities cook each other meals; Ms. Woodburn got squiffy, or pretended to be). Most notoriously, she was in the cast of 'Celebrity Big Brother,' in which demi-celebrities are confined together in a house and viewers vote on who gets the heave-ho. Ms. Woodburn would regularly spar with her housemates. 'Go away, you adulterer,' she blasted one, Jamie O'Hara, a British footballer, whom she described as a 'chicken-livered bugger.' When she berated Coleen Nolan, another housemate, calling her 'a two-faced maggot,' security bustled Ms. Woodburn off the show. Advertisement Was it pantomime? Nobody cared. Her behavior and reputation as the rudest woman on television was the stuff ratings are made from, and viewers tuned in by the millions to watch her many dust-ups, which canny television presenters invited her to perform on many more shows. MacKenzie stayed in television, too, but had a less explosive career. 'R.I.P. Kim,' Anita Singh of The Telegraph wrote this week. 'You were spectacularly rude. And, more often than not, you were right.' Patricia Mary McKenzie was born March 25, 1942, in Eastney, a district of Portsmouth on the South Coast, to Richard and Mary Patricia (Shaw) McKenzie. Her father served in the Royal Marines. Her upbringing was horrific. Her parents separated when she was young, and Pat, as she was known, was physically abused by her alcoholic mother and occasionally by her mother's boyfriend. She had stints in foster homes, group homes and a convent. Blind in one eye, Pat suffered in school, which she left at 15 to go to work, turning over her earnings to her mother. At 16, she left home and worked where she could -- in pubs, hotels and department stores, where she sold cosmetics. In her early 20s, she changed her name to Kim, after actress Kim Novak, and to separate herself from her mother, who also went by Pat. In her memoir, Ms. Woodburn wrote of delivering a stillborn baby when she was 23 and burying him in a park in Liverpool, where she was living at the time, digging his grave with a wooden spoon. When the book came out, she was questioned by the police for concealing the baby's birth, but she was never charged with a crime. Advertisement Her first marriage, to an abusive, adulterous police officer, ended in divorce in 1975. She married Pete Woodburn, another police officer, in 1979. Kim Woodburn worked as a beautician and then as a social worker caring for girls in juvenile detention centers. After she married Woodburn, the two became live-in housekeepers for wealthy families in the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom. Pete Woodburn survives her. It was while Kim Woodburn and her husband were working for a Saudi Arabian sheikh at his house in Kent -- a dream job, she said, with the family in residence only six weeks a year -- when she went on the audition that would lead to her TV fame. The 'Queen of Clean,' as the British tabloids called her, was often called on to provide household tips. One of her top five involved dinner parties. Her advice: 'Don't have one.' This article originally appeared in
Daily Mirror
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Kim Woodburn's harrowing real life tragedies that led to call from police
Kim Woodburn once revealed she gave birth to a stillborn baby and buried his lifeless body in a park Kim Woodburn has died at the age of 83. A representative for the star said she died following a short illness. Kim will be remembered for shooting to fame as an outspoken cleaning expert on How Clean is Your House? before become a reality TV icon thanks to her appearances on Celebrity Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Away from the camera, Kim overcame a series of terrible tragedies in her life that she hid behind her larger than life persona. Brave Kim has previously opened up about her abusive childhood and the trauma of delivering her own stillborn baby alone in a park. Kim first spoke of her heartbreak in her 2006 autobiography Unbeaten: The Story of My Brutal Childhood - which led to a visit from the police. In the book, Kim revealed she was 23 years old when she went into labour three months early and delivered a stillborn baby. Unmarried and terrified of what her parents would say, Kim buried the child's lifeless body in a park. She's since called that night in 1966 as 'the worst of her life.' "I had never felt more wretched. I still talk to my son now. The deep sadness doesn't go away," said Kim. Once the haunting details emerged in her tell-all book, Kim was contacted by police who later decided not to take action against her. Speaking about the tragedy, Kim said: "Being an married mother years ago was terribly shameful. You were a whore and a man would only marry a virgin. "It was a very sad part of my life. I would never go back to visit the spot where it happened. That would just be too much. I couldn't do it." Kim has also been honest about her upbringing in the past, including her abusive and neglectful parents - something she's said she doubt she'll 'ever get over.' She has said: "I always regret the fact that I never had a decent mum and dad. I wanted nice parents and a warm home with lots of love - crikey, wouldn't that bad wonderful? "Good parents are your backbone. I don't think anyone gets over an unhappy childhood." During an appearance on Loose Women in 2017, Kim opened up about the shocking abuse she suffered by her own father. Kim revealed she was physically and sexually abused by her dad Terence, who died in 1992. "My dad was a Royal Marine and he was a bit of a naughty man," she said. "He'd have a bit of a touch of the old naughty bits when he could get away with it." Kim said she felt she couldn't tell her mother who was physically abusive and would strike her with 'carpet brushes.' The TV star spiralled again as she opened up about her traumatic past on Loose Women in a showdown with Coleen Nolan. After coming to blows with her Celebrity Big Brother nemesis Coleen, Kim stormed off set branding the panelist 'utter trash.' Before her dramatic exit, Kim had teared up as she spoke about the adversity she's faced in her life. She got very tearful as she began to speak about her "brutal childhood." "The bullying they did to me came to me... I was upset, I pretended not to be." Speaking after Kim left the set, Coleen explained to viewers: "We have got members of our team with Kim backstage. We didn't intend for it to actually end like that, we were hoping - actually, genuinely hoping - for some kind of reconciliation, but that wasn't going to happen." The ITV show added: "We invited Kim on the show to reconcile with Coleen and put their differences behind them. But it didn't go to plan."After 18 months, we were hoping the two women would let bygones be bygones. But it wasn't to be."
