I was on Big Brother and have a strern warning for this year's stars
by Poppy Atkinson Gibson · Mail OnlineOrlaith McAllister starred in the sixth series of Big Brother in 2005 and despite having a memorable time on the show, she now works a regular nine to five job.
The former beauty queen, 45, was a 26-year-old student and model when she entered the Big Brother House.
She made waves after kissing Makosi Musambasi before Anthony and Makosi infamously had sex in the hot tub - a scene which provided one biggest shocks of the show and one which Orlaith branded 'a wee bit too much'.
It began when Makosi and Orlaith enjoyed a kiss in an attempt to entice Anthony and Maxwell Well into what become one of Big Brother's steamiest nights.
The blonde beauty left the reality show after six weeks in order to return to her private life.
But since her time on the show, Orlaith trained as an estate agent and got married and now lives in Antrim, Northern Ireland with her husband and two children.
And although she has seemingly retired from being onscreen, she made a brief return on the BBC show Beauty Queen and single which followed fresh-faced beauty pageant winners ditching the glam to find a connection with someone that was 'more than skin deep'.
Reflecting on her experience on the iconic series, Orlaith shares how doubts set in during her time in the house on how she was being perceived by the public, compared to her other housemates.
She expalined she felt 'judged' for turning to glamour modelling following her stint on the show.
Speaking to BoyleSports Games, Orlaith said: 'I think in an environment like Big Brother, because you're there 24/7 for so many weeks, your mind starts to wander and you look at other people and you think, 'Are they going to do better than me outside of the house? Have they got a better momentum going for them?'
'You know, jealousy sets in. There would be a lot going through your head as to how you're going to decipher the outside world after and what your career is going to look like, if any.
'I suppose I did, for a while, judge myself whenever I came out of the house and I had obviously done glamour modelling.
'That's not a big bad thing but there were some people that would have said 'How could you have done that?' It kind of made me feel like I had done something wrong.
The reality star went on to explain that many of the housemates worry about how they'll re-enter the real world after having such a an intense time on TV.
She said: 'Everyone goes in with an idea of how they want to portray themselves and how they want to be, but you'd like to think that they'd be smarter now because there's been so much reality TV - that they wouldn't be silly and make mistakes for themselves because it doesn't fit well with the public in the long run.'
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Big Brother's Orlaith McAllister admits she enjoyed her steamy snog with Makosi Musambasi more than Anthony Hutton kissing her in the hot tub
Orlaith confessed that her time on the show made her scared to go back to a 'normal job' but added that after she took the plunge people treated her nicely which she found surprising.
'I suppose for a while that kind of prevented me, and I suppose there was an element of fear, going out into the big bad world of real work and a 9 to 5 job.' she said.
'I have been extremely lucky in the companies that I've worked for and with the people that I've worked with, that they have been amazing, they have just treated me like me.
'I don't feel that I have to put any kind of pretense on. I don't need to pretend that I'm something that I'm not, I'm fully educated and I have a degree in business studies.
'I've done my whole education. I never thought I wanted to ever work a 9 to 5, but now I am, I love it, so I suppose I've had the best of both worlds really.
She then warned the contestants to be careful with reality TV because the outside world can be fickle.
She said: 'But you need to be very careful in reality TV, as to how you're going to look from the outside world because it doesn't last forever for some people.
'For some it does and it's lucky that they can make a good career out of it, I suppose in a way that's down to management and being smart but you do have to be extremely careful just to make sure that you can get right into the world of work if you need to.'
Big Brother airs nightly on ITV, with episodes available to stream on ITVX.