Benefits Street’s Deirdre ‘White Dee’ Kelly has revealed she was forced to move home after her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother over fears for her children’s safety.
The reality TV star shot to fame after a stint on Channel 4’s five-part series which explored the lives of residents on James Turner Street, Birmingham in 2014.
She then featured in the Big Brother house later that year but was ‘forced’ to leave her house on the street after concerns emerged over her family’s safety.
Ms Kelly told ITV’s This Morning about her ordeal: ‘It’s kind of a funny story because I went to Celebrity Big Brother, I left my house on James Turner Street to go into Celebrity Big Brother, came out, and we moved.
‘So it’s like “oh my God”, they’ve moved my home but I can see why they did it because of the profile, even for the safety of my kids, really.
Benefits Street’s Deirdre ‘White Dee’ Kelly pictured on This Morning today. She revealed she was forced to move home after her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother
Ms Kelly pictured on Celebrity Big Brother in August 2014. The show led to concerns over her family’s safety
Ms Kelly told ITV’s This Morning about her ordeal: ‘I went to Celebrity Big Brother, I left my house on James Turner Street to go into Celebrity Big Brother, came out, and we moved’
She also revealed that her stardom had had an effect on her son and daughter Caitlin, who appeared with her mother on Benefits Street, with her children having to speak to ‘thousands’ of people they had never met at the front door.
She added: ‘You bring your kids up going: “never talk to strangers” and you’ve got thousands of strangers going: “is your mum in?”‘
The reality TV star admitted that she missed her old house as it was ‘home’.
Ms Kelly appeared on the morning TV show to talk about a number of charitable projects she has been working on.
First she discussed the youth organisation she runs with her partner Rachel Warren, who works as a school teacher in Birmingham.
The group, named Birmingham Says No to Knife Crime and Youth Violence, puts on workshops and fun events for young people.
During Covid, Ms Kelly started helping at a food bank and soon she had set up The Hub, where people can go to eat and talk to others.
The organisation successfully applied for National Lottery funding, which allowed them to find improved premises and serve more people.
She told this morning’s programme that reaching out to those in need, including recovering addicts and people without food, had made her happier.
Earlier this year Ms Kelly said she wished she had never appeared on the landmark documentary – as she detailed how a knife-wielding attacker broke into her house and threatened her with a knife.
The 52-year-old said she and her family were subjected to a ‘campaign of terror’ by her daughter Caitlin’s ex-boyfriend Luke Shervington.
Shervington, now 26, attacked Caitlin in October 2017 before turning up at her mother’s house and before entering the home with a knife.
Ms Kelly, looking back on her time on the Channel 4 documentary, said the show’s producers had ‘stitched up’ the community, and claimed they only learned of the title weeks before it aired.
In a new interview following Shervington’s conviction for common assault and possession of a knife, she said she would not appear on the programme knowing now that her and her neighbours’ lives would be depicted as ‘poverty porn’.
She told the paper of Shervington’s attack: ‘I turned round and there was Luke, standing in the bedroom doorway with a knife in his hand. He was agitated and yelling, “Who called the police?”.
She went on to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, for which she was paid a reported £50,000
White Dee walking along James Turner Street, the setting of controversial Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street
He fled before police arrived, sparking a manhunt that ended days later when Shervington appeared at the property again; police arrested him and found a 21inch blade in his bad.
She added: ‘My daughter didn’t want to leave the house alone and was always looking over her shoulder. She felt like she was being stalked.’
When his case came to court in September 2022, he was given a 23-week sentence, suspended for a year, after pleading guilty to common assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.
He was also given a restraining order, community service and a requirement to attend an anger management programme – a sentence Ms Kelly could not understand.
She said: ‘I was fuming. Everything he put us through should have led to a custodial sentence. It was the hardest thing I’d ever experienced in my life.’
