'These words give trolls a slap back to reality'

Chanelle Hayes is using our powerful photoshoot to change the narrative about the years of online abuse she's suffered since her days in the Big Brother house

- KENZI DEVINE

Talentless”, “ugly”, a “fat mess”. Words you probably wouldn’t say to your worst enemy. Yet these are some of the confidence-shattering slurs Chanelle Hayes has been forced to endure, via social media, on a near-daily basis.

When she shot to fame on Big Brother back in 2007, aged 19, Twitter was in its infancy and Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat didn’t exist.

How times have changed.

“When I went on Big Brother, I was due to start university the month after it finished and I genuinely thought I’d still go back to normal. But it didn’t happen,” Chanelle, 35, tells us.

“It was crazy. I didn’t know it would lead to me being in magazines and papers and I just couldn’t believe how crazy my life was coming out of that house. It was a complete whirlwind.”

Dealing with paparazzi was one thing, but as social media use exploded, Chanelle was caught in the increasingly cruel crossfire.

But it wasn’t until she gained weight that the trolls really came out in force.

“They would say my body is ‘disgusting’ and ask what happened to me – just awful things really,” she says.

“I used to reply to them, but I think it made things worse. I’d spend hours talking to these people. Then I’d get angry… it would really bother me.”