Chantelle Houghton has finally found true love — 20 years after her ill-fated marriage to pop singer Preston.
The Celebrity Big Brother star went public with her new man, garden centre owner Westley O’Bryan, last month and can’t stop beaming as she opens up about their romance during our exclusive shoot.
“He makes me feel at peace, safe, calm and everything just melts away,” says Chantelle, 42.
Things have progressed so quickly with 45-year-old Westley that marriage is already on her mind — just one year into their relationship. “I’ve already picked out my wedding dress,” she says, excitedly. “It’s very loosely fitted, cream, with long sleeves. It’s really simple, just stunning.”
Finding her dream gown happened by luck, she says. “There is a beautiful wedding dress shop where I live, and this dress was in the window for quite a few weeks,” Chantelle recalls. “I drove past and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I love that dress.’ Westley has seen it and he loved it. He said it was classy and I’d look beautiful in it.”
It’s hard to believe this year marks two decades since a then-unknown Chantelle nervously walked up the iconic steps into the Celebrity Big Brother house, despite not being famous herself.
As long-time fans of the show will know, the bubbly Essex girl — then working as a part-time Paris Hilton lookalike — entered the house on a secret mission to convince her famous housemates she was a member of fictional girl group Kandy Floss.
Incredibly, Chantelle pulled it off, and a whopping seven million viewers watched as she was crowned the series winner.
But it was her surprise romance with Ordinary Boys singer Preston that truly captivated the nation.
Despite appearing to have little in common, over the course of their 23 days in the house, the unlikely couple fell for one another, as legions of misty-eyed viewers willed them on.
Just seven months later and amid a blaze of publicity, the pair got married. But their union was short-lived and they divorced the following year.
Although she is now “just like mates” with her ex-husband — who she wed at the historic Dartmouth House in London’s Mayfair — Chantelle tells us she has finally put him, and their marriage, behind her.
“I kept my wedding dress to Preston all these years,” says Chantelle, who tied the knot wearing a satin creation by Elizabeth Emanuel — the designer behind Princess Diana ’s iconic wedding gown.
“I’ve had a couple of relationships over that time and I never thought about getting rid of it, but with this relationship it felt wrong. So the wedding dress has gone. I threw it out.
“It just felt really disrespectful to have this dress in my home when I’m with this guy who I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Thinking ahead to what her big day might be like should she marry again, she says it would be worlds away from the huge spectacle that took place in 2006. “That was very much like a TV wedding,” she tells us. “I didn’t even know who some of the guests were.
“This time, I would only have immediate family and close friends. It would be very simple and classy, with the main focus being that we want to get married, not put on a big show for a load of people.”
While Chantelle says she and Preston, now 44, “had one of the best break-ups you could ever have”, even hugging one another on the day of their divorce, her love life since has not been plain sailing.
In 2010, she had a rocky six-month romance with Morning Live presenter Rav Wilding before getting engaged to Katie Price ’s ex-husband, Alex Reid, the following year. But in 2012, less than three months after she gave birth to their daughter Dolly, the couple split.
She became engaged to property developer Michael Strutt in 2020, but the pair broke up the following year, with Chantelle saying the relationship “fizzled out” during the Covid lockdown.
Opening up about how she and Westley — who is a strapping 6ft 4in — first met, Chantelle recalls the moment they locked eyes while she was visiting a friend’s salon at his garden centre in Brentwood, Essex.
“I looked around and this guy looked at me and it was this moment in time,” she reveals. “It felt like it went on forever and ever. We both smiled at each other, then I scuttled off back to my friend’s salon. I said, ‘I’ve just met the love of my life.’”
After a mutual friend passed on Chantelle’s number to Westley, the pair went on their first date just a few days later.
“I was so nervous, but I needn’t have been because it was so relaxed,” she says. “We spoke all night, to the point where we were in the pub and all the other diners had left. Even all the bar staff had gone.
“I just knew how much I liked him. I felt so comfortable and at ease, and obviously fancied him like crazy. I knew this was the start of something amazing.”
It wasn’t long before the couple made it official, with Chantelle saying they were both “really aligned” in what they wanted.
“It was really early on, about six weeks in,” she tells us. “Someone asked if I was single and Westley was like, ‘If anyone else asks you that, then we can say you’re definitely not single.’ And then we had a conversation like, ‘Are you my boyfriend? Are you my girlfriend?’”
While the road to true love might have been a bit bumpy for Chantelle in the past, she tells us that now she’s older, she is far clearer about what she’s looking for in a partner — and it sounds like Westley is on the same page.
“Because we’re both in our forties, dating is different,” she explains. “We’re not here to play games. There was no, ‘I wonder if he’s going to text me?’
“As a girl, you need that reassurance and I’ve always known where I stand with him.”
The relationship blossomed quickly and Chantelle recalls the magical moment when they both revealed the depth of their feelings for each other.
“There was one evening and he said to me, ‘I’m falling in love with you,’” she says. “I already knew he loved me. I said, ‘I’m completely and utterly in love with you.’
“It’s a big thing telling someone that you love them. It’s scary, because you don’t know how the other person will react.”
Although the couple are not currently living together, Chantelle says they are always at each other’s houses and she can’t help but sing dad-of-one Westley’s praises. “He is the kindest, most considerate, supportive person,” she smiles. “He’d do anything to help anyone and I know he’ll always be there for me. He’s so calming, too. There’s no drama.”
One of the key things that attracted her to Westley was the fact he had no idea who she was. “He didn’t watch Celebrity Big Brother and couldn’t care less about that side of things. He just loves me for me,” she says.
Mum-of-one Chantelle — who was celibate for four years before meeting her new man — says she wouldn’t rule out having more children in the future. “Cameron Diaz had her first baby at 47, so who knows?” she teases.
Chantelle has deliberately kept a low profile in recent years after struggling to deal with some dark times in her personal life. She recently spoke about her battles with what she describes as “disordered eating”, which saw her weight plummet to 8st 2lb and left her with low energy and pain.
She is now in good health once again after realising that she had taken her weight loss “too far”.
Last month, Chantelle opened up to Paul C Brunson on his We Need To Talk podcast about being the victim of “narcissistic abuse”. It’s a highly sensitive subject, which has clearly affected her deeply.
“When it first started to happen, the abuse was having such an effect on me mentally,” she said on the podcast. “I was trying to show up for work and events, but I was just dead inside. I was deteriorating mentally and emotionally. I realised I wasn’t in the headspace to put on a front any more.
“That’s why I took a step back from being in the public eye. I just couldn’t cope any more.”
Revealing how she hit rock bottom, she added, “They put me in a situation where I didn’t want to live, but I didn’t want to die. That’s a really horrible place to be in.”
Thankfully, as Chantelle celebrates her thriving and joyful relationship with Westley, it seems that she has finally turned a corner.
“It feels like I’ve come home again,” she tells us. “So many bad things were happening to me for so many years, but this feels like me again.”
She is even considering a return to her reality TV roots and wouldn’t rule out becoming a familiar face on our screens again. “I started in reality TV and I would love to do more,” she says. “I enjoy it, it’s fun and I can be myself.
“Who knows what’s next, but I’m back — and this time, I’m not going anywhere.”
Watch this space!
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
