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Nadia Almada has reflected on her Big Brother victory at the height of the show’s success, 20 years on. The Portuguese-born star received almost four million votes during the season five final, which is the highest winning margin in Big Brother history to date. Almada, who now works as a hair stylist in Surrey, remains the show’s only transgender winner.

In a new interview with The Guardian , she reflected on her win and the role that “voyeurism” about her transgender identity played in it. She also revealed that the reality TV stint brought her estranged family together. “I didn’t go in there with any plans to be a role model or a reference point,” she said.



“But, by default, I became that person and there is that whole generation since that still uses me as their first moment of understanding what a trans woman could be.” Almada praised the show for bringing “real people” and “minorities” to the awareness of the general public. The star, who Big Brother presenter Davina McCall calls her “all-time favourite housemate” , won the show during the same year as Labour introduced the Gender Recognition Act.

The legislation allowed trans people to change their legal sex. “ Big Brothe r celebrated real people,” she continued. “And it brought forward minorities who were less visible on TV.

That was one of its USPs, that it brought to the forefront conversations that needed to be had.” Reflecting on the reasons she won, Almada feels that her “hu.

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