Big Brother’s Penny Ellis reveals she now works in Morrisons as a pot washer

Big Brother’s Penny Ellis has revealed she now works in Morrisons as a pot washer 22 years after finding ‘unbelievable’ fame on the show.  

The former schoolteacher, now 55, was a born again Christian and took part in the 2001 series where she was the first housemate evicted on day 15.

In the house, Penny famously dropped her towel on the live feed which forced Channel 4 to issue an apology, with Penny later saying the moment ‘ruined’ her life. 

Now she has told how she currently works in a very normal profession in the seaside town Hastings after struggling to return to her day-job after the madness of the show. 

Penny told The Sun: ‘I was so famous when I came out it was unbelievable. The trouble was I didn’t really know what it meant.’

On the effect her nude moment had on her career she said: ‘I kept getting sacked.

‘I’ve tried to teach for the last 20 years on and off and it’s been an absolute disaster every single time – it ranges from hysteria to kids throwing s**t at me so I’ve literally lost 16 jobs.

‘The last job I lost I was on £700 a week because I’m a fantastic teacher, that was in February 2020.’

After losing her last job she decided to get a job at Morrisons washing cutlery – and she says she’s ‘never been so happy’ and that it is the ‘best job she’s ever had’.

Penny now looks worlds away from when TV fans first got to know her and she now sports long grey hair and glasses.

The former reality contestant has become popular on TikTok and still sometimes discusses her experiences taking part in the show.

Penny has previously said she never thought producers would air the towel moment and didn’t expect to see it in the papers the following weekend.

Penny has been candid about the negative side effects of going on Big Brother, previously claiming it ‘ruined her life’ and led her to be sacked from her teaching job. 

Speaking to Capital FM recently, she insisted her application to Big Brother was ‘a mistake’ and she had actually been trying to get in touch with Big Breakfast.

She said: ‘I was trying to phone the Big Breakfast to get my girls to go on and read some of the letters out that they’d been writing about bullying and about racism and I got through to the hotline instead.

‘So I carried it [the form] around in my bag and then I put it in the bin, got it out of the bin, finally had to fill it in practically the day before it had to be in and sent it off.’ 

‘It has been 20 years of being mocked, and jibed and ridiculed.

‘I lost all my money, my reputation, my church, my job, my self-esteem, my friends, my home – that two weeks in the house I lost everything.’

Penny learned she had been sacked from her job as a teacher when she left the house with several outraged parents complaining about her.

However, Penny has also capitalised on her reality TV stint by releasing a book called Meet Me at the Mirror earlier this year which chronicles her rise to fame.

Penny’s series of Big Brother was won by Brian Dowling who later went on to present the show for two years on Channel 5.

Big Brother is set to return to screens later this year on ITV2 with AJ Odudu and Will Best serving as hosts.