Big Brother’s Rochelle Rackham looks completely unrecognisable in unearthed pic… as we unravel her controversies

SHE has been branded bossy, vain and one of the most divisive housemates in years – but now an old picture of Big Brother firebrand Rochelle Rackham has left viewers doing a serious double take.

has become one of the breakout characters of this year’s series, with her no-nonsense attitude and refusal to keep her opinions to herself making her impossible to ignore.

But alongside the rows, complaints and the endless drama, fans have also been getting increasingly fascinated by Rochelle herself – including just how radically different she looks compared with pictures from her younger years.

An old snap of the housemate shows a very different-looking Rochelle, prompting a wave of interest in her appearance and how much she has changed over the years.

And while some viewers have been left stunned by the transformation, it is hardly the only thing about Rochelle that has divided opinion.

In fact, she has become such a lightning rod for controversy that there now appears to be almost no middle ground when it comes to the housewife.

Some fans are desperate for her to win for her classic reality personality, while others appear to want her out at the earliest opportunity. And that was made clear when Rochelle alongside her biggest rival , 44, last week.

The pair had become locked in one of the most explosive feuds of the series, but Rochelle survived the public vote while Johanne became the third housemate evicted.

Rather than disappearing into the background after the showdown, Rochelle has continued to dominate conversations about the show.

She admitted before entering the house that she had applied for Big Brother “as a joke” and expected to be kicked out almost immediately. In her official housemate Q&A, Rochelle even predicted exactly what would happen once she arrived.

She said: “I can imagine that after a few days, I’ll get really angry with it being untidy. If people are untidy, if toilets aren’t clean, things like that. So, I’ll probably be moaning.”

“I’m quite bossy at home and I drive everyone mad, so I’m sure that I’ll carry it on in the house.”

She certainly hasn’t disappointed.

From getting involved in rows over cooking and cleaning to becoming embroiled in arguments about other housemates’ personal lives, Rochelle has developed a reputation for saying exactly what she thinks – whether people want to hear it or not.

One viewer lashed out about her behaviour during a discussion about the eviction – summing up the frustration of some viewers.

“Her complaining and moaning isn’t to do with Johanne. She will still interfere when Lynx is cooking, she will still walk through and look in the pans and complain about the mess that is made when Omar is cooking midway as though it won’t be cleaned up afterwards.”

They added: “Her complaining and crying about her hair, dettol, silk pillow case, and Pauline having a rubber duck had nothing to do with Johanne. Why is she saying it’s a shame that people didn’t get to see the real her bc Johanne is in the house?”

But it is her interactions with other housemates that have really landed her in hot water.

One of the earliest and most uncomfortable moments came during a conversation with 18-year-old Charlotte Nott, a quadruple amputee. Rochelle admitted she had initially felt “scared” and “freaked out” by people without limbs and asked Charlotte directly why she had never had arms.

The exchange left viewers deeply uncomfortable, with Rochelle facing a backlash over the way she

Rochelle was then accused of during a conversation about weight loss and gastric sleeve surgery.

Millie revealed she was due to undergo the procedure but could miss it if she remained in the house. Rochelle responded by warning that a gastric sleeve “isn’t always what you think” and can stretch again.

When the conversation turned to weight loss, Rochelle asked Millie if she wanted to lose weight. Millie said she did, explaining that her weight was something that genuinely affected her confidence. But Rochelle challenged her.

“You’re saying you have but I see what you eat…and you’ve got to think ‘No, I’m not going to do it’,” she told her.

She then added: “You are a pretty girl and you can so easily… if that’s what you want to do, then you can do it.”

Rochelle also suggested weight-loss injections and questioned whether Millie had properly changed her diet alongside them.

Once Rochelle left, Millie was heard telling Harry: “What a f***ing cow.”

But if Charlotte and Millie exposed Rochelle’s unfiltered side, her feud with Johanne became the storyline that completely consumed the house.

The pair clashed from early in the series, with rows spilling out of disagreements over cooking, cleaning and everyday life.

One early blow-up came after Johanne refused to eat chicken cooked by Rochelle because she believed it was undercooked. Rochelle felt her pride had been wounded and the exchange descended into a shouting match.

But things became much more serious when Rochelle overheard Johanne and Pauline discussing race and microaggressions.

Rochelle came away believing they had been calling her and fellow housemate Rhianna racist. Johanne and Pauline strongly denied this, accusing Rochelle of twisting their conversation and spreading a damaging accusation around the house.

Rochelle, meanwhile, felt she was being gaslit because the women had been discussing microaggressions in relation to her.

The atmosphere became so heated that over the hostile atmosphere surrounding the feud.

By the time the two faced the public vote against each other, they had effectively become sworn enemies. In Friday’s episode, leaving Rochelle still in the house and still at the centre of the drama.

Away from the rows, another criticism has begun to follow Rochelle around – that she is obsessed with appearance. Viewers have picked up on her high-maintenance approach to beauty and presentation, including her reactions to her hair, clothes and personal belongings. That has led some viewers to dub her ‘vain’ or ‘high-maintenance’.

But before entering the house, Rochelle revealed a different side to herself – that she has spent almost her entire adult life putting other people first.

Rochelle has been married for 33 years and has three sons. She met her husband when she was 18 and married him at 22, explaining that she had “never, ever done anything for myself”.

She told Big Brother: “I never bought a property. I left home and was married, and this is the first time ever that I’m actually going to be not having him there or anyone with me.”

Rochelle is also an avid horse rider and show jumper, saying she rides every day and spends much of her time with people younger than herself. If she wins the £100,000 prize, she already knows exactly what she would spend it on.

She said: “I’d be buying more horses, handbags.”

Despite these high hopes – she told bosses before entering the house that she had no strategy whatsoever.

“I don’t know, I just can’t imagine it,” she said. “I think I’ll be kicked out really quickly.”

Instead, she has survived an eviction, outlasted her biggest rival and become one of the most talked-about figures of the series.

And now Johanne has gone, there is no obvious sign of Rochelle calming down. She has already been at the centre of fresh tension with newcomers to the house, proving that removing one rival was never going to remove the source of the drama.

Love her or loathe her, she is giving viewers exactly what they signed up for – edge-of-your-seat reality TV.