It was impossible to ignore Angela Clancy upon her arrival in the Big Brother house.
Within minutes, the mother of two managed to convince host Sonia Kruger to carry her luggage, picked a fight with Big Brother and asserted herself as an outspoken housemate who’s accustomed to the finer things in life!
But is all this bravado just an act for the camera? Not one bit, according to the sassy 38-year-old.
WATCH: Big Brother newcomers memorable entrance.
“I’m overly confident,” the Perth events manager tells New Idea. “My tongue engages before my brain, I think!
“And I don’t have a filter. Sometimes that doesn’t work for me and I’ll say things and then regret them later.”
Angela, who grew up in what she describes as “the Beverly Hills of Kenya”, admits to being naturally “competitive” – explaining that she was determined to be on Big Brother, even in spite of her husband Damien airing his concerns.
“My husband said to me, ‘You’re too outspoken, babe, you’re too bossy and people will be against you’,” Angela recalls.
“But words, opinions – they don’t mean anything to me.
“Opinions are like a fart– everyone has one!
“I’m not going to live my life worrying that someone doesn’t agree with my opinion.
“So, if you’re not putting food on my table, your comments don’t mean anything to me.”
Angela admits she was aware that her outspoken nature would mean she wouldn’t be “everyone’s cup of tea”.
However, she was surprised to find an unlikely ally in quirky housemate and YouTube star, Kieran Davidson.
“Well, we have a lot of ‘vanillas’ in there,” Angela laughingly says. “Who is the ‘chocolate’? Kieran, actually!”
“He was my ‘Day One’. I struck up a connection with him immediately and took him under my wing.
“I had the urge to just protect him, because I could see from afar that people were going to come for him, and I wasn’t having it.
“I feel like he’s the annoying little brother that I never had.”
While Angela established herself early in the house, the mother to Callum, 9, and Bella, 6, admits that it took a mental effort to “block” what was happening back at home.
“I told the producers before I went into the house that the one thing that will bring me down is thinking about my family,” Angela explains.
“So when I went into the Big Brother house, I did not think about them.
“I told myself that my kids were well looked after by my husband and their grandparents – because they are my weakness and I knew if I started thinking about them, it would throw me off my game.”
Angela credits her “strong mind” for enabling her to self-enforce this mental strategy – but admits it nearly came undone when the housemates were informed about the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Gosh I hope my kids are OK’,” Angela reveals. “Because we didn’t know how bad it was inside the house.”
At that point, Angela says producers allayed her fears by telling her everything was fine at home.
However, with the show filmed interstate, Angela admitted she developed “paranoia” about potentially bringing the virus back home when she returned from filming.
“I was so worried I might take [the virus] to WA and give it to my kids – and I thought I’d rather die here in the Big Brother house than take the disease to my children.”
Now the show is on-air, Angela is safely reunited with her family and says her children are as excited as she is to see her on TV.
And, true to form, Angela has no concerns about how she might be portrayed – or how viewers will react to her.
“No regrets, darling. I’m happy with who I am,” she insists. “And I don’t read [social media] comments. Like I said, if you’re not paying me, I’m not interested in your opinion.”
For more pick up a copy of New Idea, on sale now.
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