David Bowie death mix-up saw CBB legend sell distasteful merch - before co-star died

Tiffany Pollard tried to capitalise on the hilarious cock-up that became Celebrity Big Brother history, only for the victim of her confusion actually pass away just months later

A Celebrity Big Brother legend sold distasteful mix-up merch - only for her co-star to die not long after.

Throughout the years, the reality TV titan - now airing on ITV - has given fans some incredible moments of TV gold. From George Galloway's cringeworthy cat performance to an all-out brawl between Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace and Farrah Abraham, fans have been given moments of true reality thanks to the show.

But in 2016, contestant Tiffany Pollard gave Big Brother fans a moment of real TV gold when she mistakenly thought that co-star David Gest had died. This had come while she was a housemate during the winter 2016 edition of the show, which was airing on Channel 5.

Having already been a controversial season due to the ongoing affair between Stephanie Davis and Jeremy McConnell, viewers were on edge to see how the house would explode even further. But things came to a head on January 10, 2016 with the "David's dead" debacle.

Angie had told Tiffany that David was dead - without clarifying which David she meant(Image: Channel 4)

In the hilarious cock-up, David Bowie's former wife Angie - who had been a housemate at the time - was informed of David's passing outside of the house two days earlier. After leaving the Diary Room, Angie confessed to Tiffany: "David's dead", without clarifying that it was her ex-husband.

To make matters worse, Tiffany believed that it was in fact fellow housemate David Gest who had died - which was only exacerbated due to David feeling unwell in his bed at the time of the incident. Tiffany would eventually freak out and call on her housemates to help her, only for the mix-up to be uncovered shortly afterwards in what Angie described as "a comedy of errors".

Tiffany would freak out in what would be a golden moment for Celebrity Big Brother(Image: Channel 4)

Fans were left stunned as Tiffany would go on the offensive in the wake of the incident, as she fumed she would not apologise to Angie for her reactions. But after leaving the house, Tiffany was soon made aware of the huge reaction the moment had in the outside world.

Hoping to capitalise on her newfound fame in the UK, Tiffany went on to release a clothing line which featured the phrase "David is dead". The product was rolled out by the Flava of Love star's management shortly afterwards, and stocks soon began to fly off the shelves.

At the time, Tiffany was flogging the T-shirts on her website for the price of £24.99. However, in a cruel twist of fate, music producer David tragically did pass away just months after his stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

David Gest would eventually die three months after his stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house(Image: Channel 5 / Jonathan Ford)

As a result, Tiffany immediately pulled the T-shirts from sale in the poorly times fashion faux pas, as she took to her social media to pay tribute to her former housemate. "I'm so sad to hear about the passing of David Gest," she wrote, "my thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family."

Tiffany's publicists also went on to confirm that the T-shirt would no longer be selling, as they wrote on their social media: "Just to confirm, Tiffany Pollard is not yet aware of the passing of David Gest. But, as her management, we have decided to remove certain T-shirts from her range; we also send all our love to David's family at this difficult time!"

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