Big Brother’s Charlie may be as camp as a camp thing, but his family have claimed that they had no idea he was gay before he came out.

Charlie told his dad about his sexuality just a few weeks before he won a regional heat of Mr Gay UK.

His father, also called Charlie, told New! Magazine: “I remember being a bit shocked. But when I thought about it, it all made sense.

“I think he had been worried about telling me but he had no need. I was absolutely fine with it.”

Sister Sara said: “He was always such a hit with the girls. If we were out together in town, girls would always stop and say to me ‘Your boyfriend is so lush’.

“When he was at school he went out with a girl for three years until he was 16, so I had no reason to think he wasn’t straight.”