Angie Bowie breaks down after death of David Bowie, stays in Big Brother house
The ex-wife of David Bowie, Angie, has been told about the artist’s death, but decided to remain in the Celebrity Big Brother House.
It was announced on social media today that the artist behind Ziggy Stardust had died after an 18-month battle with cancer.
Angie Bowie, an author, who was married to the artist for a decade from 1970-1980, was removed from the Celebrity Big Brother house in order to be told about his death.
After deciding to remain in the house, she went into the diary room to talk about her ex-husband.
She said: “I haven’t seen him for so many years. So I can’t make a big drama out of it. I just feel like an era has ended with his passing. I’m so very sad.”
Beginning to cry and break down, the former model added: “Stardust has gone.”
Angie was later comforted in the diary room by fellow housemates David Gest and John Partridge.
A CBB spokesman said: “Following the very sad news of David Bowie’s death, we can now confirm that Angie Bowie has been informed off camera by her representatives.
“She has taken the decision to continue in the programme.
“The decision to remain in the House is entirely her choice, and she has been given the option to leave at any time if she changes her mind. Appropriate support will be available to Angie at any time if needed.”
Earlier today, Channel 5 announced that Angie would be informed of David Bowie’s death.
A Channel 5 spokesman said: “Following the very sad news of David Bowie’s death this morning, we can confirm that Angie Bowie will be informed off camera today at the earliest opportunity. We will update further once this has taken place.”
David Bowie adopted several personas over the years and made comments about his sexual orientation on several occasions.
His persona Ziggy Stardust, created when he released Space Oddity in 1969, was a bisexual alien rock star. The androgynous figure became a gay icon.
The legend married Angie in 1970 but declared himself as gay in an interview with the now defunct Melody Maker magazine in 1972. Four years later, he told Playboy magazine that he was bisexual. “It’s true—I am a bisexual,” he said. “But I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Coming out as bisexual was the “biggest mistake I ever made”, Bowie declared in an interview with Rolling Stone that he was “always a closet heterosexual.”
Distancing himself from the Ziggy Stardust persona, he said: “That was just a lie. They gave me that image,” he later went on to comment on the hedonistic lifestyle he lived in the 1970s.
In 1993, Bowie told Rolling Stone magazine: “I didn’t ever feel that I was a real bisexual.” He added that he was “making all the moves, down to the situation of actually trying it out.
“I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him. The irony of it was that I was not gay. I was physical about it, but frankly it wasn’t enjoyable.”
Speaking on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2002, Bowie was asked by the host about his sexual orientation, and whether he thought once you were gay you couldn’t go back to being straight.
The artist responded: “I was just happy… I just got my leg over a lot.”
On whether he had relationships with the men in his life, he said: “Not if I could help it. I was incredibly promiscuous, and I think we’ll leave it at that.”
