A few weeks ago we were telling you about an Irish woman with a very familiar name making it to the final of Big Brother Italy, and now she's only gone on and won the bloody thing.

Dublin model Alessia Macari has become the winner of the country's first-ever edition of Celebrity Big Brother and claimed the grand prize of €100,000, €50,000 of which will go to the charity of her choice.

As we said, Alessia's surname may be familiar to you as her family own the Macari chipper empire in Ireland, while her cousin is former Dublin Housewives star, Virginia Macari.

 

23-year-old Alessia, who is also a singer, told the Herald that her seven-week stint in the house wasn't all plain sailing; "It was really different to what I expected. I thought it was going to be a holiday but it wasn't like that at all.

"You really get to know yourself much better and learn how to handle situations, so it's a deeper process than you think it's going to be.

"But I was in there with some really good-looking Italian men so that made it easier. I would do it all again in a heartbeat."

"I was the outsider going into the house. I was probably the least famous person on it. I was in there with some really big stars, former footballers and Italian showgirls. There were some really big personalities.

"I always say that I look Italian but I have an Irish sense of humour. I was just myself on the show as I had nothing to lose. I'm a young girl with curves and I think the Italians could relate to that," she said.

Congrats Alessia!