Celebrity Big Brother star Donna Preston seems to have fallen out with former comedy partner Verona Rose, with fans noting the pair no longer follow each other on Instagram. Before her stint on the ITV reality show, Donna, 38, was best known for her work as one half of a comedy duo with Netflix’s Sexy Beasts host Verona Rose.
The pair co-created and starred in Fully Blown, a BBC Three comedy about two Southampton women chasing rap stardom as alter egos Starz and Gap C. The show took three years to develop.
They later teamed up again for Donna Vs Verona, a comedy challenge series that was filmed remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown.
At the time, the duo were seen as a rising force in UK comedy. However, it has been observed that they no longer follow each other on Instagram, and haven’t interacted publicly in some time. Neither has commented on the apparent estrangement.
Donna and Verona previously shared their methods for keeping their characters on Fully Blown as authentic as possible, telling the British Comedy Guide : “We have been working on these characters for years, so we knew their backgrounds inside and out. We spent a lot of time chatting with the producers, discussing our own lives.
“For example: GapC’s character is based on Verona’s real-life experiences of growing up in Southampton. Being young and black, people often make assumptions about you – you must live on an estate, you must be into rap music, you must have smoked weed.
“So in Fully Blown we have GapC – a black girl who is middle class, has a solid job at Top Shop – and has to choose between what her parents want (to follow a career path) or what people think she wants, what her best mate Starz wants, and probably in her own heart also wants (also based on most of Donna’s real life experience)…to jack it in and follow a dream to become a musician. Verona also used to be an MC, and Donna a singer, so it’s not far from the truth!”
The pair’s professional distance comes as Donna Preston faces criticism from viewers over her recent behaviour in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Although fans initially seemed to like her for her sense of humour, the comedian has now been labelled “calculated” and “two-faced” after conversations with housemates Ella Rae Wise and Danny Beard, in which she was accused of encouraging gossip and “playing the game”.
Audience members watching at home also wondered why she often makes negative comments behind the backs of her co-stars instead of to their faces.
One person shared: “I think I was right about Donna all along. I said ages ago that Donna was wearing a mask and sneaky… and here tonight her mask slipped.
“As BB said.. ‘why not say it to their face’ when she ran off to moan in the diary room. She had the chance to be real to their face and actually air her opinions to faces. But she was a coward. Donna is calculated. Strategic and playing the game being fake and not authentic at all.”
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