After beating out big personalities like Rex, Darnell and Mikey, Welsh housemate Rachel has been crowned winner of Big Brother 2008.

It was an unexpected victory for the schoolteacher – the strongest characters like outspoken chef Rex and Darnell were wiped out first, leaving a three-way between Rachel, Mikey and Sara.

Aussie Sara was evicted next to a rapturous applause, and looked stunning throughout her high-octane interview with Davina afterwards. This left a classic Scotland versus Wales showdown between Mikey and Rachel. Our bets were on a big win for the curmudgeonly Scotsman, but everybody in the audience was shell-shocked when Rachel was announced the winner.

The nice girls are supposed to finish last, aren’t they?

Possibly the most shocking aspect was the look on ex-housemate Sylvia’s face as the result was announced. The po-faced cohort of evictee Alexandra de Gale adopted an ‘oh no she didn’t’ expression which lasted for a solid ten minutes. It didn’t go unnoticed by the audience who chanted “Jealous, jealous, jealous” at her during Rachel’s interview!

Sadly, there was a group of numpties in the crowd who insisted on booing Rachel as she left the house. However, this just spurred people on to cheer her all the louder and drown the jeering out! Anyway, Rachel walks away with a prize of £100,000, so she won’t be worrying too much about the opinions of a couple of yobs in the audience!

So, to all of those who thought this year’s BB would be a fix with Rex set to win, what do you think now? And what do you think of the closeness of the finale – 51.3% of the vote went to Rachel. I predicted the final two housemates yesterday, and also reminded you that we thought the public were apathetic about the show – to the point where the least hated would win the prize this year.

We’ll have more gossip for you tomorrow about the Big Brother finale, so tune in then for some juicy backstage info