[James]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

That's really not how I remembered it at all, although granted I wouldn't have been reading up about it online at all at the stage. I thought it was all very romanticized

It was romanticised by some people, yes, eg. Davina. But a lot of the online stuff was pretty poisonous at the time. And the media covered Big Brother in a much bigger way back then.

Paul got most of the criticism as I said, but for slightly different reasons than Hazel in the Hazel - Daley situation. Basically, people said - wrongly - he wouldn't be interested in Helen outside of the house.

The likability factor, and how popular she was as a housemate, makes a big difference with Helen when comparing to the situation now. But even then I remember Simon Pegg on BBLB criticising Helen for going after Paul in the house when she had a boyfriend on the outside. So the same issues were spoken about at the time.