A REALITY TV star became emotional while filming a new TV show where he learned his Boxted home is haunted.

Jake Quickenden, who rose to fame after appearing on The X Factor in 2012, appeared on the latest episode of the Discovery channel’s Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted.

The singer, who is originally from Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, moved in to his new build home in Boxted, near Colchester, in 2019.

During the show, the 34-year-old explained: “I’ve lived in four or five different addresses and there seems to always be something there and it can’t just be that I’m moving in to haunted houses every time, so I’m thinking maybe it is me.

Gazette:

“[This house is] a new build so it was probably the one house I thought when we did move in that nothing would ever happen, and how wrong was I?

“The TV turns itself on and off. The lights turn themselves on and off. I’d like to think that it was people that are close to me that passed.”

Jake’s dad sadly passed away more than 15 years ago which was followed by the tragic loss of Jake’s younger brother who was just 19 years old.

Jake, who believes he was a solider in a past life, was stunned to learn from the show’s experts that the spirit of a soldier called Bill is living in his home.

Penny Griffiths-Morgan, who is a historian, featured on the programme and said: “During the Civil War some of the troops wanted to go north of Colchester to meet some of the northern support which was coming down. They hired a miller to guide them, and he deliberately got them lost and that’s how they ended up in Boxted."

The historian added that “we don’t know for sure” how many died at the battle of Boxted Heath, but a diary from one of the troops indicated that around 100 men lost their lives.


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Who is Jake Quickenden?

Jake Quickenden appeared on the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012, getting as far of the judges houses.

He auditioned again two years later, when he got through to the live shows, where he was eliminated in the third week.

Later that year, Jake participated in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! finishing as the runner-up to Carl Fogarty.

He later went on to win the tenth series of Dancing on Ice, and has since appeared on other TV shows and in musicals.