Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke, EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer and former Tory MP Sir Michael Fabricant are among the contestants who are reportedly set to compete on Celebrity Big Brother.
The series is set to return on ITV on Monday, following last year’s explosive season that saw controversy with The X Factor judges Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne making remarks about other celebrities.
There has been speculation that Oscar-nominee and former boxer Rourke – known for The Wrestler, 9 1/2 Weeks and Sin City – will join the 2025 line-up.
Recently, the 72-year-old has been on the US version of The Masked Singer, the Roman Polanski-directed comedy The Palace and parody movie Not Another Church Movie.
Last year, Palmer, 52, returned to play loudmouth Bianca Jackson on EastEnders, after becoming a DJ more than a decade ago.
She thanked the BBC soap’s crew last month for a “few months of love and history making”, ahead of her stint coming to an end on screen.
Palmer has previously competed in BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2005 with professional dancer Anton Du Beke, and in 2023 featured on ITV1’s Dancing On Ice where she was partnered with skater Matt Evers.
At the 2024 general election, Sir Michael lost his seat in Lichfield to Labour’s Dave Robertson.
Sir Michael – recognisable by his distinctive blond hair – had been a serving MP since 1992, and was on a celebrity edition of Channel 4’s First Dates for Stand Up To Cancer.
It has also been claimed that the new edition of the spin-off Big Brother with famous faces will include retired Olympic athlete Daley Thompson, The Only Way Is Essex star Ella Rae Wise, TV presenter Angellica Bell, and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series four winner Danny Beard.
Two-time Olympic decathlon champion Thompson, 66, set a then-world record at the 1984 Los Angeles games and won the BBC Sports Personality prize that same year.
Bell, 49, a Celebrity MasterChef winner who rose to fame on CBBC, has presented radio programmes, The Martin Lewis Money Show, and The One Show.
Also reported to be appearing is singer Chesney Hawkes, US chat show host Trisha Goddard, comedian Donna Preston, American pop star JoJo Siwa, Love Island star Chris Hughes and Coronation Street actor Jack P Shepherd.
The One And Only hit-maker Hawkes, 53, was asked if the rumours were true during an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Friday, and replied that he has “no idea what you’re talking about”.
Shepherd, 37, is known for playing hairdresser David Platt on Coronation Street for the last 25 years, and recently has been involved in a failed hit-and-run scam in Weatherfield.
YouTube personality Siwa is no stranger to reality shows, having been on Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, The Masked Singer, and Dance Moms, as well as being a judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
Hughes, 32, who rose to fame on ITV2 reality dating programme Love Island, briefly began a singing career with fellow Love Islander Kem Cetinay before moving to become a sports broadcaster.
Preston, 38, has appeared in Netflix supernatural series The Sandman, and ITV comedy panel show Hey Tracey!, while 67-year-old Goddard has presented her own eponymous talk show and appeared on ITV celebrity competition series Dancing On Ice in 2020.
Last year, Goddard told Hello! magazine that she had been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer, also known as stage four cancer, for which there is treatment but no cure.
The London-born presenter previously recovered from breast cancer some years earlier after a 2008 diagnosis.
After emigrating to Australia in the 1980s, she became the first black news anchorwoman on Australian TV, and went on to host of TV shows in the UK and US.
A spokesman for Celebrity Big Brother said: “Any names suggested for Celebrity Big Brother are purely speculation.”
Before the series began airing on ITV, the controversial reality show was last on Channel 5 in 2018 before being cancelled by the channel.
Celebrity Big Brother returns Monday at 9pm on ITV1 and STV.
A spin-off show called Celebrity Big Brother: Late & Live will follow on ITV2, which will see the return of last year’s winner, reality star David Potts.
