Following Kim Woodburn’s death, her former co-star Aggie MacKenzie has reflected on the breakdown of their strained friendship – revealing a backstage bust-up during a pantomime with Kim shoving her was the final straw
Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie rose to fame as the cleaning dream team on the hit Channel 4 series How Clean Is Your House?, which aired from 2003 to 2009 in the UK.
The show followed the pair as they visited some of the filthiest homes in Britain, delivering brutal home truths, hygiene education, and deep-cleaning transformations. Their contrasting personalities and no-nonsense approach made them both entertaining and oddly endearing, but behind-the-scenes of the show there was a huge rift brewing between the two loved TV hosts.
Although they became huge household names as the grime-fighting duo on How Clean Is Your House?, Kim and Aggie were far from best friends once the cameras stopped rolling. While their on-screen chemistry was key to the show’s success – with Kim’s fiery attitude bouncing off Aggie’s calm, scientific approach – tensions simmered beneath. Over the years, Kim has been outspoken about their lack of personal connection, bluntly stating that the pair “never got on” and that working together was purely professional.
Aggie, 69, for her part, has been more reserved but has acknowledged that their relationship wasn’t close. She once hinted that the pair had “very different values” and approaches to life, which contributed to their distance.
Since the show ended in 2009, they never collaborated again, and public jabs have only cemented the idea that their clean-up act never extended to mending fences. Despite the strained dynamic, their mismatched personalities became part of what made the show such a success, with audiences drawn to the chaos and candour as much as the cleaning.
Following the news of Kim’s death on Monday at the age of 83, Aggie has now delved into the reason behind their heartbreaking fallout, admitting that it was Kim’s inability to control her anger that was the final straw for her. Speaking to The Mirror, Aggie, who is now a successful yoga teacher in North London, recalled the incident that ended their somewhat civil working relationship.
Aggie says that she and Kim barely exchanged any words and ‘never really spoke again’ following the huge fallout in January 2008. She says they were starring together as the Ugly Sisters in pantomime Cinderella in Brighton when they had a bust up.
Recalling the traumatic and triggering, Aggie says they were waiting in the wings to go on, but that Kim didn’t move when their cue came. Aggie then tapped Kim on the shoulder, went out, then led her off the stage once their scene was done. It was then that all hell broke loose.
“Kim missed her cue so I tapped her on the shoulder. We went on and did our scene, but when we came out at the other side, Kim was furious. She pushed me. She actually pushed me so hard that I fell over,” Aggie claims. “I lost it then. I really really lost it with her. I was so furious because I wasn’t expecting to be pushed over like that.”
Aggie then recalled the awkward fallout from the untimely row as the whole Pantomime show was thrown into complete chaos. “The whole thing kind of blew up then. She went off to her dressing room and she was crying her eyes out. She was really upset and I was really upset – I was so furious.”
As Kim and Aggie were taking some time to themselves to gather their emotions during the interval, Aggie says that the producers were scrambling to ensure that the show would continue. In order to ensure that audiences weren’t let down, they had a lead dancer on standby to take over Kim’s role as she insisted that she wasn’t going back out on stage or anywhere near Aggie.
“The lead dancer was being made up to take her part because she was refusing to go back on stage, and this was an audience of hundreds of people. It was really a huge problem and the interval had to be extended by a lot actually. But at the last minute Kim stormed out of her dressing room and shouted ‘I’m going back out there’.
“It was awful. She came on and it was so obvious that she had been crying. I knew there was people in the audience thinking to themselves ‘what the f**k is going on here’. It was mental. And after all of that I was just done. It felt like she had kind of crushed me. The disrespect was so much and I knew that I couldn’t actually continue being civil anymore without an apology.”
When asked if she ever received an apology from Kim, Aggie laughed. “No, no, no, no. I don’t think that Kim knew how to apologise to anyone,” she chimed. “She was a very complex person. Essentially, she probably had no confidence, she probably deep down hated herself, and so in order to survive she had to put on a big front to keep herself protected and to keep people away. If she apologised to me, that would be showing weakness in her eyes. So no, I never got an apology from her.”
Kim’s death was announced to the world on Tuesday, June 17, when her representatives confirmed that she had passed away from a short illness. A representative for Kim shared in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness.
“Kim was an incredibly kind, caring, charismatic and strong person. Her husband Peter is heartbroken at the loss of his soulmate. We are so proud of the amazing things Kim achieved in her life and career. We kindly ask that Kim’s husband and close friends are given the time and privacy they need to grieve. We will not be releasing any further details.”
Like most of the nation, Aggie too was left in shock when she heard about Kim’s untimely death. “I was really surprised. I was so shocked, because I didn’t know that she had been ill. I know that it was a short illness but I don’t know how long it went on for. It felt so out of the blue. But I suppose the day was going to come at some point, unless I died first.”
When asked about the last time they spoke, Aggie was unable to recall a certain time, admitting that it could well have been over 15 years since they actually communicated with one another after the end of How Clean Is Your House. However, Kim did regularly visit Aggie in her dreams – and it spurred on a desire for reconciliation in her.
“I have no memory of the last time I spoke to Kim. It was years and years ago. But I did used to dream about Kim a lot, but I never actually saw her in real life again. The dreams were mostly about us making up and being friendly again. They were kind of telling me that life is short and it made me wonder if we should just be nice to one another.
“But I never reached out after them, even though a part of me did want to reconcile. I never wanted not to be her friend, but she didn’t really do friendships actually. She was a very untrusting person and she was very suspicious of everyone and she was never able to let her guard down, so it was extremely difficult to try and get close to her. I think she always felt as though people were going to turn on her or do her over, so it was hard to get through those walls,” Aggie recalled.
Despite having the recurring dreams about Kim, and despite the fact that she has now died, Aggie has admitted that she has no regrets when it comes to not reaching out to her former co-star again. “I don’t have any regrets about not reaching out to Kim.”
Offering a rare insight into Kim’s marriage with husband of 46-years Peter Woodburn, Aggie said that Peter was the only person that Kim ever spoke softly and sweetly of. “I feel so sorry for him,” Aggie said after learning of Kim’s death. “I feel like he is really going to be lost without her. I feel sad for Peter.”
“Kim was always very sweet to Peter. They were together for decades and they seemed to be very dedicated to one another. She never ever dissed him to me and in the rare times that she would let her guard down, she would never say a bad word about Peter. She was never unkind about him. There was a lot of love there and I know that he really did love her,” Aggie shared.
Addressing the news of Kim’s death on Tuesday, Aggie told The Mirror: “Kim was a tormented soul, but now she’s finally at peace. We clashed often. Behind the fierce persona was deep pain and incredible strength. She survived because she had to. I hope she’s resting now. She was an unforgettable woman.”
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