My time with Kim Woodburn proved her gay icon status

‘If I’m lucky, I might have another 10 years on the earth. Do you think I’m going to waste 10 years putting up with s**tbags?’

Whatever you might say about Kim Woodburn, one thing is certain, she was always true to her word and lived life her way.

Woodburn died at the age of 83 yesterday following a ‘short illness’, leaving behind one of the most unique legacies in showbiz.

Calling Woodburn a ‘reality TV icon’ doesn’t do her justice; she was something so much greater – especially to the LGBTQ+ community. 

I briefly worked with Woodburn when she became Metro’s I’m A Celebrity columnist in 2022. There was absolutely no one else I wanted for that column; if she didn’t do it then it simply shouldn’t go ahead. 

Few celebrities are as unfiltered as Woodburn and even fewer want to come across unfiltered in their columns.

There was more than one occasion when we could not run her exact words without the threat of legal complaints, and I remember her insisting to my reporter that every scathing word that came out of her mouth made it into print. 

As an editor, that’s exactly what you want. She was simply brilliant and a rarity in entertainment now, which is so cautious and dry, its golden years are so far behind us.

I’ll truly miss Kim Woodburn. She was the most badly behaved class act I’ve ever come across and the gay community hasn’t just lost a meme-queen, it’s lost a true ally. This is especially true when fearless voices such as hers are becoming increasingly hard to come by.

My admiration of this national treasure began 22 years ago when How Clean Is Your House launched. I was 15 at the time and would do anything to avoid housework (I’m still the same) but Woodburn was unlike anything I’d ever seen on television before. 

Reality TV in its inception was sexy, fun, and scandalous – it wasn’t two women cleaning poo from the bottom of a loo.

More than 22 years since How Clean is Your House launched, fascination in Woodburn never died. But it was when she was snapped up for I’m A Celebrity in 2009 that a star – and gay icon – was really born. 

She was exceptional. She was a drag queen in jungle gear; rarely would her conversation not turn to ‘bonking’, and if she wasn’t talking about sex she was scolding her sexless campmates.

She came second that year, losing out to Gino D’Acampo, but that didn’t matter. She’d become a TV giant in her own right.

And when it seemed her brightest days on television were behind her, she was about to become a true national treasure after she single-handedly became the most disruptive Celebrity Big Brother housemate of all-time.

Her relationship with the LGBTQ+ community was an unlikely marriage, but one that has genuinely enhanced the lives of so many gay people I know since she erupted at everyone and everything in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

I have no doubt she was impossible to live with, but as a viewer, she was impossible to miss. She was camper than anyone I’ve ever known. 

For context, Woodburn had to be removed from the house temporarily when a row broke out over who had the toughest life to-date. You could disagree with Woodburn on the correct way to eat a chocolate digestive and seconds later security would be called in.

Eventually, it got so out of hand that while being dragged out of the house by guards, she told footballer Jamie O’Hara: ‘I wouldn’t s**t on you if you were on fire… You’re an adulterer that two-timed your wife and she’s got three kids!’

Once she was embraced by the LGBTQ+ community with open arms, she embraced them back – proud in her allyship and making numerous appearances in queer spaces – and who could possibly want fighting your corner more than Kim Woodburn?

If you’ve seen the moment she was set up on Loose Women for a ‘reconciliation’ with Coleen Nolan and took on the entire panel without breaking a sweat, you’ll see what I mean.

Even if she had the delivery of a bull in a china shop, she always stood by her convictions and, for me, that’s what integrity is all about.

Right now, seeing that same level of integrity is becoming increasingly rare. Celebrities and politicians who once gave LGBTQ+ people their word that they’d always have our backs, marched with us at Pride or declared ‘trans right are human rights’ are now too scared to stand by us.

She may not have always got it right, like appearing on GB News to discuss same-sex changing rooms and declaring ‘a man’s a man’ and a ‘woman’s a woman’. Of course, this wasn’t a great move and she was – quite rightly – called out for it at the time.

I do honestly hand in heart know that she would not have intended to upset the LGBTQ+ community and knowing that she had would break her heart.

She responded to critics: ‘I will always be an ally to the community and would never say a bad word about any of you. I am very disappointed in those who have deliberately misinterpreted what I said. You are horrible horrible people.’

Her impact on pop culture, particularly gay pop culture, is practically unrivalled when it comes to reality television in the UK. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t see a Kim Woodburn clip being thrown around social media.

That impact was best celebrated on the very first series of Drag Race UK by its eventual winner The Vivienne. Viv did an impression of Woodburn for RuPaul and was a stroke of genius, capturing every single inch of Woodburn’s unapologetically ferocious charm with impeccable precision.

Viv died at the beginning of this year, with Woodburn among the many mourners at their funeral. She may not have been someone you wanted to cross, but she too was the first person to laugh at her absurdity.

I hope, and know, wherever she is now she’s giving some ‘chicken-livered s**t’ what for and I am gutted we’re not there to watch it happen.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.