I uncovered a family secret and tracked down my real father with DNA test

FORMER Celeb Big Brother star Danielle Meagher Collins has told how she was shocked to discover in her 40s that she had two dads and her biological father was working on films in Hollywood.

- BY SIOBHAN MCNALLY

Danielle, 49 who trained as an aerospace engineer before switching to dentistry and a career in cosmetics only met her American father once.

She was devastated when he died within months of her learning of him.

But she only made her big discovery because her yearning for publicity led her into reality TV, and eventually to a new life in the US.

Danielle had become a hit on Irish TV show Dublin Wives, which she joined despite not being married as a way to promote her cosmetics business.

One of a cast of five on the Real Housewives-style show, she told how she became known to viewers as Dr Botox because she administered all her own cosmetic jabs.

She says: "It was great exposure.

"If you were to put it in monetary terms, I guess you could have paid half a million for the advertising."

That led to an offer to join the UK's Celebrity Big Brother.

She says: "The call came in and I'm like, 'Come on now, I'm a doctor, this is ridiculous!

"But there was a fee involved, so then I was like, 'Ooh OK!'

She joined housemates including Charlotte Crosby, Louie Spence, Ron Atkinson and Sophie Anderton, but was voted out on Day 7 - the first one to be evicted.

Still peeved that only UK viewers could vote, Danielle said: "I didn't last long at all. How was I going to? They had no one in Ireland voting."

Now a stand-up comedian, she says her life was turned on its head after the move into comedy took her to live in the US where a cousin hinted at a big family secret. Speaking from her home in California, where she is a favourite on the stand-up circuit, she said: "I used to joke and say, 'Am I adopted?"

"I'm not like my family. They're very quiet, private people. I'm obviously not."