The winner of the 2025 season of Big Brother has been crowned, and they've broken a record while they're at it. Tonight's six-way showdown saw housemates Cameron, Elsa, Emily, Jenny, Richard and Tate battle it out for the crown, with the man who was dubbed the bookies' favourite ultimately coming out on top.
Yes, Richard left the house to huge cheers as he was named the champion, telling host AJ Odudu: "It's absolutely crazy. Absolutely crazy!"
Behind him, Elsa came second, Jenny third, Cameron fourth, Emily fifth and Tate sixth.
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In winning, 60-year-old Richard - a composer and author - makes history as the oldest ever winner of the UK reality juggernaut. Prior to him, 2016 champion Jason Burrill was the oldest, at 45.
The youngest ever winner is 2018's Cameron Cole, who was just 19 when he triumphed in the final civilian series on Channel 5 before its cancellation.
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Tonight's show opened with AJ's co-host Will Best warning that the public vote was "close", but Richard's victory was in line with most bookies' predictions.
Fans were generally delighted with the result as they reacted on X, with one saying simply: "our king richard did it". Another wrote: "The best result we could have gotten. Our oldest public winner in Big Brother UK history."
"guess the 'boring b*****d' as caroline calls him has won big brother! RICHARD NATION RISE," wrote someone else.
In fact, several posts referenced last week's evictee, with another saying: "Haha I just know Caroline is burning on the inside and probably wishes she would have left Richard alone now #BBUK."
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Ex-housemate Caroline had a tumultuous relationship with Richard, and left the compound to a series of boos when she was voted out.
While the future of Big Brother UK has not been officially confirmed by ITV, AJ and Will revealed tonight that casting is open for another series, a hugely encouraging sign.
Celebrity Big Brother is also widely expected to come back in 2026, with ITV boss Kevin Lygo indicating it could move to ITV2.
Big Brother is available to watch on ITVX.
Shaun is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, with over a decade of experience reporting on all things pop culture. He has written for outlets including Metro, Attitude, Huffington Post, The Mirror, Yahoo!, Pink News and Express Online; specialising in TV, movies, soaps, music and LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning scriptwriter, having written episodes of the soap Hollyoaks, the official Steps musical Here & Now and multiple Offie Award-nominated plays. He studied English Literature and Drama at the University of East Anglia, and will happily talk at length about Desperate Housewives to anyone who'll listen.
