Trisha Goddard has revealed it was her daughter Billie Dee who gave her the final push to take part in Celebrity Big Brother.

The TV icon, 67, best known for her self-titled talk show Trisha, made her entrance into the famous house on Monday night – despite reportedly turning down the offer multiple times in the past.

Trisha, who last year confirmed the return of the cancer she first battled in 2008, opened up about her decision on Davina McCall‘s Begin Again podcast.

Trisha candidly admitted that she had no real intention of joining the show, even after repeated invitations over the years.

However, a simple conversation with her oldest daughter Billie, 35, changed everything.

She said: ‘So this time I was asked and I said to my daughter, my older daughter, I said, “Oh God, as usual, they’ve asked me to go do Big Brother.”

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Trisha Goddard has revealed it was her daughter Billie Dee who gave her the final push to take part in Celebrity Big Brother

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The TV icon made her entrance into the house on Monday – despite reportedly turning down the offer multiple times in the past (pictured with Billie in 2020)

‘And she said, “Mum, while you’re going through this whole cancer shenanigans, you have become passionate about the language around it.

‘”The lack of joined up services, the way the press reports it, the misinformation, you’re doing it on Instagram, you’re supporting people,” and they support me… you know, my daughter said “you got all of these stuff you’re passionate about.”

‘I’ve done local press in America about it… she said, “Mum, this is your opportunity for people to see what you’re talking about, not just the words, to actually see, what 3.4 million people, according to the Macmillan, by December, 3.4 million people in the UK alone are living with cancer.”

‘Six million people are living with a chronic illness now. Now they’re not all on benefits. Most of them are working.

‘A lot of them keep it secret because they think they won’t get further work or they’ll be fired. And that’s a very real fear.

‘But all those millions of people who could benefit from better joined up services, people using better language around them. All of those things… So I said yes.’

The star, who is also mum to Madison, 32, relocated to the US in 2010 as she devastatingly revealed the cancer ‘is not going away’ and keeping the secret was ‘becoming a burden’.

But, while she was ‘nervous’ about revealing the cancer’s re-emergence, ‘it needed to be done’.

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The TV star revealed back in February last year that her incurable cancer had returned after cells were found in her hip following a fall, and she is undergoing life-prolonging treatment

She received the terminal diagnosis 20 months ago.

The mother-of-two has secondary breast cancer – meaning the disease started in the breast and spread to another part of the body – for which there is treatment but no cure.

‘You talk to people and you say you have stage four metastatic cancer. But there’s stage four and there’s stage four’, she said.

‘You can have a few cells and you’re stage four. You can have cancer in your brain, your heart, you know, God forbid, and you’re stage four.

‘So people hear metastatic and they don’t think about the fact that there are people with metastatic breast cancer being treated by my oncologist who have been around for twenty years. So it’s a huge thing.

‘But people hear metastatic and it’s terminal, which isn’t used in the medical world, it’s life-limiting.

‘You’re written off and there’s just pity towards you. Anyone going through it, and the Princess of Wales said it perfectly, you’re living with uncertainty, but all you get is pity.

‘I can categorically tell you there are lots of people in lots of industries who are living with cancer who’ve never said a word for that reason.

‘I was doing something the other day and a person revealed to me that they were about to go and get their treatment plan, they were whispering and said, “I can’t let anybody else know about this because I might lose my job.” That’s so wrong.’

Trisha now hosts on TalkTV and occasionally appears on Good Morning Britain and lives in Connecticut with her fourth husband, Allen, who she married in 2022.