Kim Woodburn dead aged 83: How Clean Is Your House and Celebrity Big Brother star passes away after a short illness as her husband Peter leads the tributes
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Kim Woodburn has died at the age of 83 following a short illness.
The How Clean is Your House? and Celebrity Big Brother star passed away on Tuesday, June 16, her management announced in a statement on Wednesday.
She is survived by her husband Peter Woodburn and tributes flocked in for the beloved presenter following the sad news.
Her representative confirmed to MailOnline: 'It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness.
'Kim was an incredibly kind, caring, charismatic and strong person. Her husband Peter is heartbroken at the loss of his soulmate.
'We are so proud of the amazing things Kim achieved in her life and career.
'We kindly ask that Kim's husband and close friends are given the time and privacy they need to grieve.
'We will not be releasing any further details.'
Her husband Peter paid tribute to Kim, who he married in 1979, in a post shared to her Instagram page as he posted a slideshow of images of her since her childhood.
He penned in a caption: 'My wonderful, beautiful, Kim passed away last night. God bless, my love, xxxx.'
In the months before her death, Kim had paused her work commitments due to ill health and she also underwent surgery on her eye earlier this year.
Known as the 'Queen of Clean', Kim rose to fame as the co-host of Channel 4's popular series How Clean is Your House? at the age of 60.
Kim went on to become a household name on ITV chat shows This Morning and Loose Women.
She also starred in a number of reality TV shows including a stint on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2009 and Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.
Her celebrity friends and fans were quick to pay tribute to the iconic presenter, taking to social media to thank Kim for making them laugh with her infectious humour.
During Tuesday's episode of This Morning, Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard took a moment to reflect on Kim's life and career, after she was a regular on the ITV show.
In a touching remark, Cat shared: 'She was one on her own,' while Ben added: 'There was a light that burned very strongly at time with our Kim.'
Gogglebox star George Baggs shared a photograph of himself and his brother Joe with Kim and wrote: 'Super sad news that Kim has passed, what a woman she was.'
Her fans added: 'Incredible woman, she will be missed greatly'; 'Rip you’ll be missed Kim. Thanks for making us all smile';
'RIP Kim. You rocked the reality TV world and made us laugh so much throughout the years. Thank you for the laughs';
'RIP Kim. One of a kind. A wonderful lady and will be greatly missed'; 'A national treasure. She will be so missed';
'Rest in peace Kim, you were such an icon and my favourite person to watch when times were hard. There’s no one else like you.'
In recent weeks, Kim had cancelled her work commitments due to health concerns, with her husband believed to have been managing her Instagram in recent weeks.
She had been offering personal video messages to her fans on content-sharing website Cameo for £25, but paused selling the content in March due to her health.
'We regret to tell you that Kim is unable to record any further videos for the foreseeable future, due to a health problem. Kim sends her love to you all,' a statement confirmed at the time.
'No more videos for now, my loves, I need to get better,' she wrote in an Instagram post shared on March 2.
It became the final post Kim shared to her Instagram platform prior to her death, while she last featured in a video on her page shared on February 14 for Valentine's Day.
In response to her post, one fan said they hoped she was secretly filming another TV show, prompting her husband Peter to hit back and clarify again that she was unwell.
'Kim is very ill - idiot,' he commented via Kim's account.
Kim also underwent surgery on her eye in February as she took a month-long absence from social media and Cameo at the time to recover.
The TV star was born with virtually no sight in her right eye and restricted sight in the other, but only investigated her sight issues while working at a factory aged 19.
Previously discussing her sight, Kim said she was lucky that How Clean Is Your House? was all spontaneous presenting because she struggles to read autocues.
Back in April 2022, Kim also underwent surgery to replace the disc in her neck and shared photographs of herself in hospital at the time as she kept fans updated on her health.
Kim was last seen publicly at the funeral of RuPaul's Drag Race star The Vivienne in Denbighshire, Wales, on January 27 alongside her husband Peter.
Kim joined Ian 'H' Watkins, Jade Thirlwall, Aston Merrygold and Claire Sweeney in paying tribute to the drag queen, who died aged just 32 on January 5, 2025.
Born on March 25, 1942, Kim grew up in Eastney, Hampshire, and left her family home at the age of 17 and moved to Liverpool.
In 2017, she emotionally revealed she was physically and sexually abused by her own father from the age of two during a discussion on Loose Women.
Kim has opened up about her 'hard' childhood spending time in foster homes with her siblings while her mother battling alcoholism, and her stepfather also beat her while under the influence.
''You can't shrug off all those years of neglect and brutality. I may put on a front but inside I'm angry - and I think I always will be,' she previously shared.
Due to her 'neglect' growing up, Kim struggled at school because of her eyesight as she couldn't read the blackboard, with her only getting her blindness diagnosed as an adult.
After leaving home, Kim - whose full name is Patricia Mary Woodburn - worked as a social worker and then a live-in housekeeper and cleaner.
She also nabbed work as a model and attended drama school in her 20s but didn't launch her TV career until the age of 60.
Her charismatic personality and cleaning experience led to her being discovered by Channel 4 to host How Clean Is Your House? alongside Aggie MacKenzie.
She was recruited through Channel 4 contacting a cleaning company looking for someone with experience who had a 'funny temperament, leading to her casting.
How Clean Is Your House?, which ran for six seasons, became a huge hit and launched Kim into the public eye, garnering her huge numbers of loyal fans.
Her on-screen success saw her go on to star in a number of reality TV shows, including I'm A Celebrity, Celebrity Come Dine With Me and Celebrity Big Brother.
She first appeared as a regular panelist on Big Brother's spin-off series Bit on the Side in 2011 and then entered as a housemate in 2017's celebrity edition, where she came in third place.
Her time in the Big Brother house went down in history as she became embroiled in a row with her housemates and had to be dragged away by security in the now-iconic moment.
Kim also featured on Celebrity Come Dine With Me alongside Claire Sweeney, Darren Day and Tom O'Connor in March 2010.
Entering the Australian jungle in 2009, Kim had another major success on I'm A Celebrity, finishing as runner-up on the show after winner Gino D'Acampo.
Before her TV fame, Kim was married to first husband Kenneth Davies, but the couple divorced in 1975, before she wed her second husband Peter in 1979.
The couple lived together in Nantwich, Cheshire, and Kim's infectious humour and unique personality shone through during her years on TV.
Away from the screen, she also kept fans up to date on her antics on her Instagram page, where she would often share videos of herself, promote her personalised videos and share jokes.
In recent years, Kim also became known for her very outspoken opinions on famous TV personalities, and she has taken aim at a number of under-fire stars.
In February of this year, Kim criticised her I'm A Celebrity co-star Gino after it emerged that he was facing allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour.
Gino was rocked by 'over 40' allegations of sexually inappropriate and intimidating behaviour over a 12-year period - claims which he denies, saying he finds them deeply distressing.
In response to the allegations, Kim alleged that Gino made foul-mouthed outbursts which forced producers to march him out of camp, arguing that ITV's 'good edit' led to his win.
She also claimed Gino 'rubbed his penis through his shorts' as he struggled being away from his wife during his time in the camp.
She told The Sun: 'He used to stand over a log and stroke his penis area over his shorts. He'd talk to his penis saying, 'I know you haven't had any sex, but when you get out of here, you will get so much'.
'He would say his penis was being deprived and neglected, and his wife would give him a good seeing to when he got home. We would all just turn away.
'It made me uncomfortable because it was vile and crude. It's not appropriate to do that in front of women. But Gino thinks he can do what he wants.'
Kim additionally claimed the chef treated the crew 'like garbage' and after calling one crew member a 'f***ing bastard' and 'c***', refused to leave the set.
She said: 'We had to stop filming while two men took him by the arm and forced him off the set back to the camp. They should have thrown him off the show. Ghastly it was.'
Last year, Kim also branded Louis Walsh a 'nasty, two-faced' music mogul after he appeared on the newly-revived version of Celebrity Big Brother.
Over the years, she has also taken aim at Holly Willoughby, 'toxic' ITV and criticised BBC bosses for employing reality TV stars as presenters in unfiltered remarks.
Kim famously criticised ITV after she claimed she was was 'mocked' on Loose Women in an infamous episode back in August 2018.
The TV personality memorably clashed with her former Celebrity Big Brother housemate Coleen Nolan on the daytime chat show.
The pair had a high-profile falling out during their time in the Big Brother house and the conflict only worsened after their Loose Women appearance.
After Kim felt she was 'bullied' by Coleen and her other housemates, the pair attempted an on-air reconciliation but Kim stormed out after a heated argument.
In 2023, Kim reflected back on her experience and called for a 'full investigation' at ITV as she claimed some of their shows 'thrive on bullying and being unkind'.
Kim argued she was 'exploited' by ITV, and claimed the channel should 'provide a better duty of care'.
An ITV spokesperson told MailOnline at the time: 'As we said five years ago, Kim agreed to appear on the show on the understanding it was for a reconciliation with Coleen.
'Kim becoming upset was never the intention and the panel did endeavour to comfort her. Kim was offered and accepted support from ITV following the programme and Ofcom found the programme not to be in breach of the Broadcasting Code.'
Kim also famously clashed with Phillip Schofield when she appeared on This Morning to discuss her stint on Celebrity Big Brother, where she branded him a 'big phoney'.
After Phillip criticised her behaviour on the show, Kim argued that he should have been 'neutral' when interviewing her, ending with Kim glaring at him in a tense stand-off.
