In England, Celebrity Big Brother fans are upset with the show’s producers for depicting David Bowie’s ex-wife Angela Bowie as she learned about the news of the star’s death on Monday. The couple was married for ten years and has one son together, Zowie, who later changed his named to Duncan.
According to the show’s official Twitter, Bowie was told of the star’s passing in private but she agreed to continue with filming, even as the show transmitted images of her personal loss to an entire country.
“I haven’t seen him in so many years I can’t make a big drama about it,” she said moments after learning that her husband of 10 years had died. “But I feel an era has ended.”
However, according to The Telegraph, viewers don’t care that Angela consented to being filmed. Fans of the reality series still feel the obvious ploy for ratings on the back of such a sad moment like Bowie’s passing was pretty distasteful.
Bowie and Angela had a tumultuous and creative relationship. In her biography Backstage Passes: Life On the Wild Side with David Bowie, she said Bowie was “a right stud” who “could poke a hole in the wall.” In the beginning the two couldn’t get enough of one another but by their romance’s end, she described him as “an incorrigibly promiscuous, self-obsessed young starlet with a mother out of a nightmare” and he called their time together like “living with a blowtorch.” Ultimately, Angela helped her husband hone his androgynous appeal into his famous Ziggy Stardust character, which set him apart in early rock history with 1971's Hunky Dory and 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
Bowie’s death was announced on Monday following a private battle with cancer. The transformative artist turned 69 on Friday, coinciding with the release of his final album Blackstar.
Contact the author at Hillary@jezebel.com.