Big Brother: Has Anyone Seen Lesley?

By Jo Last edited 220 months ago
Big Brother: Has Anyone Seen Lesley?
lesley_sanderson.jpg

Big Brother graduate Lesley Sanderson - last seen threatening to unleash a music career on an innocent world, and singing in Roberto's bar to a distinctly unimpressed clientele - has had a very rough time of it recently. First, the poor girl was allegedly raped last week; now her parents are appealing for her to come home, as she was last heard of squatting in a "seedy red-light district" somewhere in London. The plain-talking Yorkshire girl is certainly having a tough time of it, and we at Londonist genuinely hope she's OK - while she wasn't our favourite housemate (that would be Science), she was still good entertainment - mouthy, argumentative and exhibitionist.

But maybe that very exhibitionist nature is what's landed her in her current mess. Where does a 19 year-old girl go after Big Brother ends and the attendant media locust swarm has picked the bones of the story clean and moved on? While we don't agree with her parents when they say they "will hold them [i.e. the producers of BB] personally accountable for anything else that happens to Lesley" - it's not like she's a child, after all - we can't help feeling deeply uneasy about the whole situation. Lesley herself says:

"I can honestly say Big Brother ruined my life. I wish I had never done it. People ask me how they can get on the show and what advice I can give them. I give them one piece of advice - don't do it."

Is this a majority view among ex-housemates? Probably not - but we still can't help feeling quite sorry for Lesley, and we hope she makes it home safely to Hull sometime soon.

Last Updated 02 November 2005