Kate wins Big Brother 3
Self-confessed "geezer bird" Kate Lawler was voted the winner of Big Brother 3 - the first woman to triumph in the British version of the fly-on-the-wall show.
The 22-year-old, from Beckenham, Kent, was the last of the 14 contestants to leave the house after 64 days of scrutiny in the constant gaze of the television cameras.
The IT consultant beat 29-year-old firefighter Jonny Regan, male model Alex Sibley, 23, and dental nurse Jade Goody, 21, to claim the Channel 4 show’s prize
As the winner was announced by presenter Davina McCall, the bubbly blonde burst into tears and said: "Oh my God!" as she hugged Jonny.
"I told ya," said runner-up Jonny, from Trimdon Grange, Co Durham, as the pair danced together and prepared to face the outside world.
The final announcement followed a dramatic evening of evictions to mark the finale of the hugely popular show.
Massive crowds of banner-waving fans, including some who had camped overnight to secure the best spots, gathered outside the custom-built house in Elstree, Hertfordshire, to see which of the final four contestants would come out tops.
First to go was Jade, from Bermondsey, south-east London, despite support from celebrity backers including Graham Norton, who met her as she left the house, and Hollywood star Johnny Depp.
She was followed a short time later by Alex, from Hornchurch, Essex, who received 27.4% of the total poll, with 1,817,086 votes.
Official figures revealed that Kate received 3,106,077 votes and Jonny got 2,244,788.
Overall for this week’s final poll, a total of 8,572,373 votes were cast by the public.
As each of the final four left, they were interviewed by Davina about their time in the house.
Jade said she had been scared about leaving the house after she had heard shouting about her from people outside.
"I heard horrible things, that I was a minger. I was a bit gutted," she said.
She was also tackled on the tricky subject of her under-the-sheet antics with PJ during their third week in the house.
"He is such a nice person. I didn’t fancy him like I wanted to go out with him. I didn’t think we were compatible," she said.
Looking slightly shell-shocked and lost for words, Alex said he had realised during his time in the house that he was more grumpy than he thought he was.
He also admitted that out of Kate and Adele, he fancied Adele the most.
Jonny was asked about his stormy relationship with Sandy, who left the house by escaping over a wall, and admitted he had found it hard not to lose his temper with him.
When asked who the real Jonny was, he said: "The real me is the stupid, idiotic, mischief clown but it took a lot to get us down to the serious, quiet Jonny."
For the final interview of this year’s Big Brother, Davina went into the house to speak to Kate who told her about the housemates games of "follow the van" and who she had found attractive.
She admitted that she had found all the men in the house "fanciable" apart from Sandy and Lee and overall for personality she found Jonny the most attractive, and she thought Spencer was the best looking.
All the housemates, apart from Sandy, were reunited as a huge firework display marked the end of this year’s series.
