It has been 14 years since Katie Hopkins was first brought to the public’s attention, and well, it’s been a rather rough almost two decades since then.
From shockingly racist and classist opinions to controversial takes on the COVID-19 pandemic, the right-wing social commentator’s frustratingly close-minded commentary shares the same soap box as Piers Morgan and former U.S. President, Donald Trump.
And now, Hopkins is making headlines once more after being granted permission into Australia to seemingly participate in Network Seven’s Celebrity Big Brother—during both Sydney and Melbourne’s lockdowns—where she then slandered the state government’s lockdown to curb the spread of the Delta strain and disobeyed social distancing and mask-wearing rules in her mandatory 14-day quarantine.
For those who’ve no idea who Katie Hopkins is or why she is one of the most controversial public figures to exist, scroll on for everything you need to know.
Who Is Katie Hopkins?
Katie Hopkins is an English far-right political commentator, media personality, columnist and former businesswoman. She rose to fame following her appearance on the third season of The Apprentice in 2007, but became even more notorious after further controversial opinions which saw her become a household name.
However, after many astounding takes on class, race, obesity, migrants and UK politics, she has quickly become one of the most hated public figures in the world.
What Is The Controversy Surrounding Katie Hopkins?
While far from her first (or last) controversially outspoken belief, Hopkins rose to worldwide recognition after a particular video went viral that saw Hopkins claim certain children’s names were related to the child’s class and behaviour.
In an interview on This Morning, Hopkins declared that she wouldn’t allow her children to play with those at school who had a “lower class” name like Tyler, Daisy or “destination names” such as Brooklyn—despite her own children being named Poppy and India. Called “snort worthy” and an “insufferable snob”, she was not only slammed by the guests on the morning show, but by the rest of the world as well.
WATCH BELOW: Katie Hopkins On This Morning
Additionally, Hopkins was then fired as a newspaper columnist and radio host after publicly comparing migrants to cockroaches and after she claimed there needed to be a “final solution”—a heinous, well-known phrase that was used by the Nazis for the Holocaust genocide—for the Muslim community after the horrific Manchester Arena terrorist attack in May 2017. And by 2020, she was permanently banned from Twitter for breaching the platform’s “hateful conduct” policy.
“Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us—abuse and hateful conduct have no place on our service and we will continue to take action when our rules are broken,” the organisation said in a statement.
“In this case, the account has been permanently suspended for violations of our hateful conduct policy.”
What Happened With Katie Hopkins And Celebrity Big Brother Australia?
Most recently, Hopkins has been in a Sydney hotel to fulfil her 14-day mandatory quarantine. As for why she’s allowed to fly all the way to Australia, despite at least 35,000 of the country’s own residents being denied permission to fly back home? She was rumoured to be taking place in Network Seven’s Celebrity Big Brother Australia, now renamed as Big Brother VIP.
Taking to Instagram Live, Hopkins labelled the lockdown “bullsh-t” and revealed that she had been deliberately trying to defy hotel quarantine rules, by opening the door to hotel quarantine staff “naked”, and continued to call the pandemic the “greatest hoax in human history.”
Ever since she arrived in Australia, many have made it very clear that she is unwanted with over 8,000 Australians signing a petition to have her banned.
“By her own admission, British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins—banned from Twitter for hateful conduct and known for spreading COVID misinformation—has been flouting Australian hotel quarantine rules after being brought to Australia by Channel 7 for a season of Celebrity Big Brother,” the petition said.
“By her actions, she is encouraging others to do the same, calling lockdown a ‘hoax’. Since the pandemic started, the majority of Australians have done what has been asked of them so we can live a COVID-free life.
“If Katie Hopkins is so reluctant to follow the rules to keep our country safe, she shouldn’t be here. Big Brother & Channel 7: you must send her home.”
In a quick turn of events, Hopkins’ visa was revoked on July 19, meaning that she will be headed back home to England soon. Both Network Seven and Endemol Shine Australia have both confirmed that Hopkins will no longer be part of the franchise.
“Seven Network and Endemol Shine Australia confirm that Katie Hopkins is not part of Big Brother VIP… Seven and Endemol Shine strongly condemn her irresponsible and reckless comments in hotel quarantine.”
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews told ABC News Breakfast that she, too, was relieved that Hopkins would be removed from the country.
“The fact that she was out there boasting about breaching quarantine was just appalling. It was a slap in the face for all those Australians who are currently in lockdown, and it’s just unacceptable behaviour so personally I’m very pleased she’ll be leaving,”
“We will be getting her out of the country as soon as we can possibly arrange that, so I’m hopeful that will happen imminently.”
Good riddance.
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