While she may be well known in the States, Big Brother VIP’s Omarosa Manigault Newman is a new name to many people in Australia.
The 47-year-old is best known for her former role as a political aide to Donald Trump during his US presidency.
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Born and raised as a devout Christian in Youngston, Ohio, Omarosa graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from Central State University in 1996.
It didn’t take long for her to make it to The White House, nabbing a junior position for former Vice President Al Gore, as well as working on former President Barack Obama’s very first election campaign.
But it was her work with Donald Trump that made the most headlines. They first met in 2003 and hit it off instantaneously, with Omarosa going on to appear in Trump’s show at the time, The Apprentice.
She later featured in spin-offs Celebrity Apprentice and All-Star Apprentice.
Following her reality TV jaunts, Omarosa was appointed as Trump’s director of African American outreach in 2016. She also had the position of director of communications for the White House’s office of public liasion, making her the only African American on the senior staff at the time.
In 2017, Omarosa married senior pastor John Allen Newman at Trump’s International hotel in Washington. But the political aide and former President’s relationship would sour that same year when a bunch of Trump’s staffers left The White House, Omarosa being one of them.
A year later, the now 47-year-old released her no-holds-barred memoir Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.
The New York Times reported that the book “portrayed Mr Trump as a bigot and a misogynist who was in mental decline”.
In response, Trump filed a lawsuit against Omarosa for breaching confidentiality agreements, but the author’s lawyer, John Philips, released a statement on her behalf to call the president out for his vengeful legal action.
“This was weaponisation of a lawsuit by the White House for retaliation for writing a book — for saying offensive words about Mr. Trump,” he said.
In the same memoir, Omarosa attested that the Trump she met in 2003 was vastly different to the person he became during his presidency, and it was time to “end (her) relationship” with her old friend.
Now, the polarising figure is revisiting her reality TV roots on Big Brother VIP, with People magazine reporting that she is the second highest paid housemate after Caitlyn Jenner – whom she is reportedly set to clash with over their views on LGBTQIA+ issues.
Omarosa will also be rooming with other famous faces including actor Bernard Curry, Survivor alum Luke Toki, Meghan Markle’s estranged brother Thomas, and more. It all kicks off on November 1st.
