Finishing in sixth place, Sherrie Hewson is relieved to be out of the Celebrity Big Brother house, but says that her experience has been a good one. She spoke to Female First and other press about her time on the reality series...
Sherrie how are you feeling now you're out of the house?
Well you can imagine I'm sure, very tired, exhausted but the freedom is just extraordinary. I picked up my phone and wasn't quite sure how to turn it on. Brilliant, I feel relieved but for me, I had a fantastic time in there. I had good fun whilst all around me, [people were] causing mayhem. So it was good for me.
Do you think you've done your fellow Loose Women proud?
I hope so. I was entirely who I am. I wasn't a gameplayer, I didn't go in there with an act, I didn't go in there faking anything. I was just exactly what I am, and who I am and I think that's what you should be. Although people are saying 'for the first two weeks you were hardly seen', that's not true in the sense of what we were doing. It was fun, we never stopped laughing in the first two weeks ever, but of course there was much more madness and mayhem going on, that overtook all that. But I had a brilliant time and I was very truthful and very honest to who I am, and I think that's credit to everybody and that's who I should have been.
You said you thought James might have been playing a game, who else had a gameplan?
I think when you go into something like that, I think in your head most people if they were honest would say they would've liked to have won. When you want to win something, I assume - I didn't I just went in thinking I would have a great time - but I think some people thought, 'how do i do this? How do I get screen time? How do I make myself known lots, so people don't forget me?' and all of that. I don't know if people had specific gameplans but I think they thought they wanted to win, so I think that's slightly different.
James and I have talked about it, it wasn't something we hadn't talked about many times, having a gameplan. He said he didn't but of course he wanted to win, and I think most people in there I would say have some kind of wish to win. Whether you call that a gameplan I really don't know. When you go in there you constantly do have the most ordered way of doing it, once you get in there and start getting to know people, life changes and then it became really aggressive. From day one it became aggressive and I think every day something changed because relationships change so quickly in there. One day somebody liked somebody, the next day they were screaming and shouting at them. So I don't really know, I think things changed all the way through right to the very, very end.
Who will you keep in touch with now that you're out of the house?
I know Austin will always keep in touch, and Natasha will keep in touch. The Americans I didn't get to know very well. I thought Jenna was very interesting as a person and her career and everything, but I don't think so. I don't really know. I'm sure Bobby and I, our paths will cross somewhere along the line as they do when you're in this business, so I think that's all really. I think Natasha will always keep in touch, she only lives up the road from me anyway, and Austin lives about half an hour away so, I think everybody in the North will... we'll have a reunion, apparently we're going to have a reunion so that will be lovely.
What was it that you found interesting about Jenna's career?
Well I don't know much about porn! (laughs) And listening to her was very interesting because she was saying that she protects the girls in the porn industry which is really, really interesting and very necessary and politically correct and all that. But she's fascinating, she's a sexy lady, ladies love her as well as the men obviously, and I just found listening to her, that kind of industry, I don't think that she's in it anymore but I just find what she does, the protection of the girls in that industry, fascinating and I think that it's something that she would like now to go on the shows here in this country to talk about.
Jenna couldn't persuade you to enter that sort of field?
(laughs) Oh that's funny. Well, no is the answer, and I'm sure Jenna wouldn't have dreamed of even saying it to Nana!
How did you feel about being called Nana in the house?
Well I am a Nana anyway because I've got the most beautiful grandchildren anyone in the world could possibly have, and the only time I ever kind of thought 'really?', was when Bobby started to call me Nana. Then I thought, 'in a minute you're going to get this wine over your head!' (laughs)
What did you think of the way Farrah and Jenna treated some of the other housemates, like Natasha and Janice?
Well as I say the problem with me was, I was either walking in the door when it was over or walking out the door when it started. I kind of flew through it in only the way I can, so if I'd have brought into anything or attacked or been there when somebody had wrongly accused, I would've stood up for whoever I thought was right.
The only thing I did do was when Farrah went absolutely crazy on one of the occasions, I did insist that she go into the Diary Room, and she kept saying to me, 'don't touch me', and I said, 'you get in there now!', and she didn't expect it from me because they all thought, 'oh she's just a Nana', which I'm not of course, but I was never challenged. So that's the only time I stood up to her and I think from there on in she just avoided me so, to be honest with you I flew through it.
Were you hugely relieved when Farrah was evicted?
Well I think everybody was a bit relieved because it relieved the house, it relieved some of the pressure.
Were there any points where you thought you had to leave the house, that you were going to walk?
Absolutely not one. I never once said to myself, 'I have to get out of this mad house', not once. It was never my intention to do that because I wouldn't have gone into something and then backed away, I'm not that person, I'm too strong. Yes you get emotional in there because you're trapped, I assume it's like prison or something because you have two rooms, that's it, and they're much smaller than anybody realises.
You get emotional, everything is highlighted, everything. It doesn't matter what it is, if you suddenly see an arm in the window that we think is a person, or Bobby went to the top of the tower and saw a workman, and he shouted to the workman, 'How've Spurs done?', and funnily enough the workman shouted back, 'they've lost!'. He got into a lot of trouble for that because you're not allowed to talk to 'outside people'. So everything becomes highlighted and important and you become paranoid that things are happening on the outside you don't know about. So I think really you just sit and wallow in it, particularly if Big Brother didn't give you something to do that day, you just sit for 24 hours doing nothing, except if you're Austin and James and you're having a 'man tub' and taking your clothes off, I think they're the two that kept themselves busy with each other.
But apart from that you become a little bit crazy I think, so you do start to feel sorry for yourself, but there's no way in any one moment did I think, 'I can't do this', I'm a very strong person and I just went, 'Come on, get yourself together, get some twigs and thrash yourself with some twigs and get on with it!'.
How memorable was your birthday in the house?
Oh please, I will never be able to go to my grandchild's school again! I did have a blindfold on, that's my ONLY defence! They suddenly came in the room and just... did what they did. They're two very beautiful boys, what can I say? (laughs)
Did you feel conscious about going makeup free in the house?
I have to tell you I haven't gone makeup free since I was about four years old, that was my terror, and then when I saw last night what I looked like, I thought 'oh my God, that's the end of my life now'. The only thing I did think was, we all sat at those mirrors, I was the first one up in the morning to have a shower, I was the first one to dry my hair and then, you know, living next to very beautiful young girls, I kind of gave up a bit. I thought 'slap a bit of that on, put a bit of mascara on, I can't compete. I am what I am, I put what I can on and go'.
It is very hard to be without makeup, but when we were doing all the things like having fish guts thrown over us and old cheese, and tofu that had been off for about a year, you haven't got any glamour left have you? You've got nothing left, and also you stink! The cheese was the worst because it was moulding cheese, and they let us have one shower, but in the beds at night, the beds, your hair, everything stank of this disgusting stuff for two days. But fortunately we were all in the bedroom together and we all stank together! (laughs)
What did you think of James and Austin's relationship in the house?
They're in love as much as they would be in love for that show, and I think the show was a captive show and they became very close and I think love is probably the word, they have a love for each other and it showed. But Austin's married to the most gorgeous man called Jake, I was with Jake last night and everybody was laughing and thought it was hysterically funny, but also the other thing...
I was advised when I went in there, the first thing you do is look at people and see if you can create a little family for yourself, like a son, a daughter, a mother and father, and you cling to it for life because you've got nothing else and I think that's what they did. They clung to each other, literally, in every way and I think that's what they did. They created a story, created a love story which was a bromance which was for the time that they were in there, I believe anyway, and it kept them sane.
You mentioned you didn't like Bobby's joke about Jenna's appearance, what did you make of his Farrah nomination?
Well no I didn't like the Jenna thing because I don't like hitting somebody physically comedy wise, but I think he's very funny and I think he got away with it.
Farrah had by this time caused a lot of trouble and I think from what I could tell from BOTS last night, he said exactly what people were thinking. I don't know if you saw my face when he stood up and said it, but I was very shocked by how blatant and upfront and straight up it was. But everybody said and everybody said to me, he said what people were thinking. He was quite hurtful I know, but everybody else was thinking, 'Somebody's got to stop this girl and she's got to realise'.
So actually, though I would have never done it, stood up and said those things, there wasn't one person who said, 'I wasn't thinking that', I think everybody from what I could tell from BOTS everybody was thinking that, and they literally applauded him with a round of applause for saying it.
Tagged in Celebrity Big Brother Sherrie Hewson