The caustic career of Mrs Mean

January 10, 2015

Author: Tara Green

The caustic career of Mrs Mean: From naked romps with a married man to branding Ebola patient a ‘sweaty jock’, how Katie Hopkins became the most hated woman in Britain

She found fame on The Apprentice in 2006 and quickly became a poster woman for hate thanks to her caustic remarks and regular feuds.

And last night, 39-year-old Katie Hopkins entered the Celebrity Big Brother house to a chorus of pantomime boos.

So how did she become the most hated women in Britain? From naked romps with a married man to exclaiming her loathing for 'fat people', outspoken Katie's life is never far from controversy.

In just the past year, she's attacked Benefit Street's White Dee and The Apprentice's Karren Brady, she's upset Holly Willoughby and been blasted by Lord Alan Sugar.

She once said that ginger babies were: 'Like a baby. Just so much harder to love,' and famously said she would never employ an obese person.

And, in a bid to prove that fat people are just 'lazy,' she even went to the extreme of piling on four stone only to lose it again for a TLC programme called My Fat Story.

But the writing has been on the wall for Katie since the beginning. In fact, during her stint on The Apprentice she received mass criticism for her mean demeanour.

Viewers were angered by her comments about overweight people, her condemning of maternity leave and her distaste for people called Derek and Mavis.

In fact, by the time the show ended, Katie's 'hate figure' status was well and truly cemented - something she would determinedly build upon in years to come.

Following a stint in the I'm A Celebrity jungle in 2007 she caused controversy in 2008 when she was caught romping naked in a field with a married man - her now husband, design manager Mark Cross.

Katie caused anger when she admitted she felt no sorrow about stealing Mark from his wife: 'I don't apologise for stealing my husband Mark from his wife.

'Our affair was exhilarating, our time together has been a hoot and we're happy,' she said. It was a devil-may-care attitude that would remain over the following years.

And by 2013 - when Katie posted a tweet joking about Scottish life expectancy in the wake of a Glasgow helicopter crash that killed ten people - people wanted her off their television sets.

Katie tweeted: 'Life expectancy in Scotland is 59.5. Goodness me. That lot will do anything to avoid working until retirement.'

A petition was set up with 75,000 fighting to put a stop to Katie's vitriol with the campaign saying: 'We the undersigned are sick and tired of ITV and Channel 5 giving her airtime and want her banned from all TV shows on your channels such as This Morning and The Wright Stuff.

'This woman is nothing more than an attention seeker who does not deserve to be a celebrity.'

Katie apologised for the timing of the tweet but defended her actions, saying: 'I never think of myself as a controversial speaker.

'What I do see is that in a world where people no longer speak their minds, politicians are so magnolia that we can't differentiate between the parties.

'It seems there are only a few of us that are prepared to take the kind of deluge of flak that you are going to receive if you speak your mind.'

She caused yet more outrage when, during a debate on addiction, on TV show The Wright Stuff, Katie claimed troubled footballer Paul Gascoigne, who has long suffered with alcoholism, should be allowed to carry on drinking.

She said: 'Gazza likes drinking, let him crack on. He is enjoying himself.' Indeed, one of the only people to ever really flummox Katie was the late Peaches Geldof in an appearance on This Morning in November 2013.

The mother-of-two and TV presenter, who died last year, debated with Katie on the subject of attachment parenting and won.

Peaches said of her victory: ''I think we all know who won. She was quaking in her Sloanie old boots. The panto witch finally met her match!'

Katie had insulted Peaches parenting style even taking aim at her for the time when Peaches son Astala fell out of his tipped up pram saying: 'She likes attachment parenting until her baby is on the pavement.'

But Peaches wasn't Katie's only celebrity feud. In the past she has slagged off Sharon Osbourne for having surgery - a comment which ignited an argument with Sharon's daughter Kelly.

Katie then took on Kelly herself claiming that she - like Peaches - was only famous because of her parents.

In February 2014, she took on Benefit Street's White Dee in a furious television debate calling her 'the patron saint of drug users and drop outs'.

Katie told Dee she believed fans of the hit television series would want her to go out and get a job.

Then in May, she called Lily Allen a 'short-arse in big pants' after the singer posted a video of herself in Spanx on Instagram.

Lily hit back accusing Katie of calling the paps on herself for her 2008 romp with Mark. But it wasn't until recently that Katie's comments really stated to land her in hot water.

When Katie tweeted about Glaswegian nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who was moved to a London hospital after it was revealed she had contracted Ebola, her comments sparked a police probe.

Katie said: 'Glaswegian Ebola patient moved to London's Royal Free Hospital. Not so independent when it matters most are we jocksville?'

Some 3,000 people signed a petition which called for Katie to be arrested for her 'racist' remark with the police later confirming that they were investigating complaints relating to her comments.

This isn't the only time that those who Katie has insulted have tried to get the police involved.

During one episode of My Fat Story she insulted a group of plus size activities - one of whom called the police to report her for hate crimes against fat people.

Katie told the group that she didn't believe that they were healthy and that their weight was costing the tax payer million and billions of pounds.

However their attempts to have Katie arrested were unsuccessful and she is later seen saying: 'They’re irritated that I have a voice, one of them even threatened to go and call the police, so I told her to go and do that.'

'But, no police came, which was disappointing as I quite like a man in a uniform.'

But Katie, it seems, will forever remain undeterred by people's opinion of her. She once even claimed that people only hate her because she believes they secretly agree with her.

'If I am the most hated woman in Britain, we’ve all lost a bit of perspective,' she said in one interview.

'All I have done is take the things that everyone says in their homes and said it in public, or in front of a camera. When people hate me, it’s because I have hit on something that relates to them.'

On entering the Big Brother house last night, Katie was told that she would have to be charming and kind to her other housemates who she quickly referred to as 'idiots'.