Josie Gibson and John James Parton have a lot in common.

It’s not just their Big Brother experience and their blonde hair that binds them together, the pair have also faced terrible family tragedies during their lives.

Last week Josie talked about her father’s death when she was just ten years old and today, in an interview with OK magazine, John opened up about how his dad died two years ago.

He said:

“It was on a building site, my dad and I were both working there. He was about 200 metres away from where I was working at the time.

“And the building was half up – with all the scaffolding. There were gale force winds. He went out there with my best friend at the time. And the building just fell down. He was crushed.

“I was just down the road. And then I got a phone call from head office. And the police came around to work and told me what happened. But my friend was right next to my dad, and it missed him completely and hit my dad.

“They were the only two people on site. [Josie squeezes his hand.] It was a very unfortunate thing. It was two years ago now.”

John does see the silver lining and admits that he is grateful for the time he got to spend with his father while growing up.

He said: “The older I got, the closer I got to him. I understood him a lot more. I understood why he was the way he was, all the things he wanted for me.

“As I got older I respected how he was trying to bring me up. We were very close and we became mates. I’m grateful for the time we had together, I really am.”

Josie admitted that the pair often talks about their dads. She said: “We said our dads are up in heaven chatting about us. Looking down, saying: ‘Oh, your son seems alright,’ and ‘Your daughter seems quite nice.’”