Claire Sweeney has paid tribute to Kim Woodburn after it was today announced the TV star had died, aged 83. A representative for Kim shared in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness.”
Tributes for Kim have been flooding in since the sad news was announced this morning. On Instagram, Claire who had appeared on Come Dine with Me alongside Kim wrote a touching message. The Coronation Street and Brookside actress said: “Kim Woodburn was a legend. When we did Come dine with me, She was hysterical, she called me the slapper of the Parish and accused me of spiking her dessert with pink Gin, she was telly gold.
“She Was always so kind when I saw her out with Peter. She was also a truly memorable part of Celebrity big brother. She will be missed…..RIP Kim Woodburn.”
Claire was also brought up in Liverpool by her mum Kathleen and dad Ken. Kim moved to Merseyside at a young age, but was originally from Portsmouth. It is believed she once lived on Bagot Street in Wavertree.
Kim has been a household name since 2003 when she co-presented Channel 4’s How Clean Is Your House, with Aggie MacKenzie. The show saw the pair make the nation’s grubbiest homes habitable once more and was a big hit, with Kim reportedly becoming the highest paid female presenter on Channel 4 at the time.
She went to the Australian jungle in 2009 to compete in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!. In 2017, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where she was centre of a number of iconic moments.
This includes temporarily removed from the Big Brother house by a security team after an explosive row with Danielle Lloyd’s ex-husband Jamie O’Hara, in which she screamed: “You adulterer, that two-timed your wife and she’s got three kids. These people, they put me through hell.”
Before her rise to fame, Kim worked in children’s homes, in retail, and as a social worker helping teenage girls in the city. The star – then known as Patricia McKenzie – embarked on a modelling career, doing jobs for Littlewoods in the late 1960s.
In 1983, Kim appeared on TV show Pebble Mill at One, demonstrating knitwear, but her brush with fame was short-lived and she went on to work as a professional house cleaner in the UK and US.
A tribute has also been left by Kim’s husband , who took to the Big Brother star’s Instagram with a sweet video of his wife through the years. From their married life in Formby to her time on reality TV.
He wrote: “My wonderful, beautiful, Kim passed away last night. God bless, my love.”
Other tributes posted online include: “Sending you so much love. She was one in a TRILLION.
“She understood on an intrinsic level the outsider, that’s why she bonded so completely with the queer community.
“A fabulous woman, getting to perform for her will always be the highlight of my career. Huge hugs.”
Another said: “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.”