FORMER Gogglebox star Rev Kate Bottley has slammed the “exploitative”; show, saying she LIED to quit it and made no money.
, 50, who now presents on , revealed she gave a fake excuse to step away from the hit series – but had no intention of ever coming back.
The vicar, who appeared on with her husband Graham for five series until 2016, said signing up for the show ended up damaging her family’s home life.
She alleged it left her children isolated, meal times disrupted, and their modest fee swallowed up by hidden costs.
Speaking on the Walking the Dog podcast, Kate said: “I wish I’d known how much it took over our life for two and a half years. It’s reality TV, it’s by its nature consensual exploitation.”;
The journalist said she originally agreed to take part in a bid to change how people of faith were portrayed on screen – but soon found the filming schedule was “quite intrusive”;.
Her son Arthur, who she described as on the “autistic spectrum”;, and daughter Ruby, then still in school, would hide away in their rooms twice a week while a large production crew set up in the family home.
She continued: “My kids spent two-and-a-half years sat in their bedrooms every Tuesday and Thursday night or whatever nights they came to film.
“My kids didn’t have friends round for a lot [of the time], didn’t have help with their homework. Things like that.”;
Meal times also took a hit, with Kate adding: “I’m married to a man who won’t eat takeaways, and I don’t want to be filmed eating on camera so I was like, ‘No, I’ll cook.’ There were casseroles and chillis.”;
She added: “They paid, but I cooked two nights a week for the crew... all the money we got from it went on the electricity, the internet connection that they were using, and the food and being hospitable to six people in my home two nights a week.
“It’s a vicarage as well, I should be hospitable. We should be sharing our home to people, and eating food together.
“It was a good two and a half years but we couldn’t have done any more. It got to the point where we were just a bit overwhelmed.”;
Kate said she was first approached to take part after a 2013 video of her dancing down the aisle to Kool & the Gang’s Celebration at a wedding she officiated went viral.
It clocked more than eight million views on and caught the attention of Channel 4, who signed her and Graham up the following year.
The pair were a hit with audiences, but Kate’s confident personality drew online criticism from some viewers.
She recalled: “We used to get that whole ‘Oh, you never let your husband speak.’ It was like, ‘Wow.’ Be careful there, your misogyny’s showing.
“Of course if you’re a confident woman married to a quieter man he must be henpecked, and he must be bossed about – it’s not that he’s just naturally quieter. In any relationship there’s someone that is more outgoing.”;
She said that while she and Graham were paid, the fee was small – and worse, being tied into the show stopped her from taking up better-paid offers elsewhere.
She said: “As well as finding the modest amount of money we were paid disappearing. There was stuff coming in that I wanted to have a go at that I just wasn’t able contractually to do.”;
Offers from major entertainment shows like Would I Lie To You? were off the table due to the show’s strict exclusivity clause.
Kate said: “There’s quite tight exclusivity, and rightly so. Because if you’re filming ordinary people sat on their sofa watching TV you can’t then have those people on the TV. It sort of breaks the fourth wall too much.”;
Eventually, the family decided to walk away from Gogglebox, but not before offering viewers a cover story.
She said: “It so happened that it came around the time that Ruby was doing her so the excuse we gave was, ‘We’re going to take some time away while she does her exams.’ But we were just a bit overwhelmed.”;
Despite her experience, Kate credits the show with boosting her public profile.
Since quitting, she’s become a regular on Songs of Praise and built a successful career in radio and television, while husband Graham returned to teaching music.
Speaking of her decision to go on Gogglebox, Kate previously told : “We wanted to show people that just because we have a faith and are Christians, it doesn’t mean we are four-headed.
Kate met her husband Graham at school when both were aged 13 years old but didn’t begin dating until they were 18.
Since her rise to fame. she has put her culinary skills under the microscope on.
She has also presented the BBC’s Songs of Praise.
