The organiser of the infamous Willy Wonka-inspired experience in Glasgow has told of how he has lost the “love of his life” and his life has been “ruined” because of the event.
Billy Coull said his life has been turned upside down due to the controversy surrounding the event and claimed he was made out to be the “face of all evil”.
Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain, Mr Coull said: “My life has been turned (upside down). My life is ruined.”
He added: “Because of everything that had happened, it ran into my personal life.
“I have lost my friends. I’ve lost the love of my life. I was made out to be the face of all evil. And genuinely, that’s really not the case.”
Willy’s Chocolate Experience gained viral notoriety after images and videos of the event were shared online.
The £35-a-ticket experience at the city’s Box Hub venue was sold as a “chocolate fantasy like never before” where “dreams become reality”.
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Instead, families were met with a near-empty venue decorated with a handful of Wonka-themed props and a small bouncy castle.
Parents also told of how their children only received a couple of sweets and a quarter of a can of limeade.
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Mr Coull claimed key visual equipment for the event wasn’t delivered.
He said: “I was gutted, but I believed that we could push on.”
Mr Coull said it turned into “absolute chaos”, adding: “It was absolute carnage.”
Mr Coull told the documentary he received hundreds of nasty messages branding him a “villain or devil”, adding: “Saying that I’m a horrific dad, I’m better off dead, I should kill myself.”
He said he was left “devastated” over the response to the event and felt “sick to the pit” of his stomach.
In an interview withThe Sun, his first since he underwent the lifesaving surgery, the 36-year-old described the moment when he thought he would die.
He said: “If I could go from being absolutely on top of the world to being told ‘the bottom part of your heart isn’t working’, I kept thinking in my head, ‘Well, what if the top half stops working overnight?'”
“That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” the 36-year-old musician added.
On the night of 13 December, George said his heart rate and blood pressure dropped, “I felt like I was dying,” he said.
He had a pacemaker fitted by doctors during the surgery, but the former Strictly Come Dancing star said he made a will on his phone fearing the worst.
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Before the surgery, George said his thoughts turned to his partner, British actress Maisie Smith, and his family who he feared he’d leave behind.
He shared updates on social media throughout the process.
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Tom Parker, who also rose to fame in the 2010s with the boy band along with George, died at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has announced she is pregnant with twins.
The singer, 33, said she was “eating for three now” on her Instagram alongside a polaroid picture of her with Zion Foster, with whom she was reported to have split up last year.
Nelson shared the touching post on Sunday, letting the world know she is set to become a mum for the first time – including two baby emojis next to her message.
The cosy picture shows the pair smiling in a kitchen.
Nelson rose to fame with the girl band Little Mix, which formed on The X Factor in 2011 and earned a string of UK number-one singles.
However, she left in December 2020 after nine years, saying the pressures of being in the group had taken a toll on her mental health.
Nelson has since performed as a solo artist but still had praise for her former bandmates, telling The Graham Norton Show in 2021: “To me they are still the sickest girl band in the world.”
Little Mix continued as a trio after Nelson’s departure in December 2020 before going on hiatus in 2022.
The Duchess of Sussex has delayed the release of her new Netflix series due to the devastation caused by the wildfires in LA, the streaming platform has announced.
Meghan’s eight-part series, With Love, will premiere on 4 March instead of 15 January.
“I’m thankful to my partners at Netflix for supporting me in delaying the launch, as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California,” Meghan said in a statement to Tudum, the official companion site to Netflix.
Harry and Meghan comforted volunteers and handed out food to evacuees during a visit to Pasadena on Friday, where they met with the city’s mayor Victor Gordo and emergency workers tackling the Eaton Fire.
Footage showed the duchess, wearing a blue “LA” baseball cap, and the prince hugging and consoling people who had fled to the Pasadena Convention Center.
They were also seen speaking Doug Goodwin, whose home was destroyed in the wildfires, and also to Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK) which has been helping feed the public and emergency crews.
A description of the Netflix series on Tudum’s website said: “Produced by Meghan, ‘With Love, Meghan’ blends practical how-to’s and candid conversation with friends, new and old.
“Meghan shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection, and highlights how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected.
“She and her guests roll up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same.”