Louis Walsh reveals staggering pay check that convinced him to go on Celebrity Big Brother
Louis Walsh has revealed the staggering fee he was paid to appear on Celebrity Big Brother last month.
The former X Factor judge, 71, caused a stir in the Big Brother house with his loose-lipped comments on celebrities such as Simon Cowell, Ronan Keating, Jedward, and Cheryl Tweedy.
Walsh admitted he was initially reluctant to be away from his iPad and was “scared” to go on the show before producers convinced him with a hefty pay check.
“They convinced me. They said I was going to be safe, it was going to be fun, that I would probably win it. I told them I don’t want to win it. Don’t waste it on me. Give it to someone else,” he told the Irish Independent.
“They said they really, really wanted me. They kept on at me, and still I said no, because I was scared. I don’t want to be a celebrity. It’s a fake world. I have no desire. I like music and staying under the radar. I still haven’t watched it. And I don’t want to.”
It was the eye-watering fee that convinced him otherwise, as he revealed he had been paid close to £850,000.
“They paid me a lot of money,” he admitted.
Walsh finished in fourth place, with Ibiza Weekender star David Potts taking the crown.
Being an insomniac, Walsh admitted he struggled during the nights when the lights were switched off, leaving contestants in the pitch dark.
A self-proclaimed “news junkie”, he said he usually spends his nights watching Al Jazeera, CNN, France 24, and texting his friends.
Sitting in the dark without distractions, the X Factor star said he came to several realisations about what he believes is important in life.
“My mind went a bit crazy. I was thinking ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What’s this about?’, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’, ‘Money’s no good to me.’ I thought of everything,” he said.
“I was thinking about my mother. She’s 93. I hope she’s OK. When you’re on your own in the dark, everything is worse.
“My biggest fear was being on my own. Honest to God, I was waiting for morning. There’s cameras everywhere. And you’re on mic 24/7. I could hear them behind the walls and they knew I was very agitated.”
Walsh recently issued an apology over remarks he made about other stars during his time on Celebrity Big Brother.
“I wasn’t being malicious. No one was perfect and I have said things I kind of regret, but I wasn’t being malicious,” he said.
