Hey might not know who Williams Shakespeare is and have been unlucky in love during his time on TV, but Big Brother contestant Brian Bello is a Nigerian prince.

Bello’s cousin Natalie Smith, 21, revealed his status to New! Magazine, explaining that Bello, 20, is the grandson of a Nigerian tribal king.

After struggling to cope, Bello's Nigerian parents gave up their child when he was four months old.

Foster mother Sue Wood, now 53, brought up Brian with her two biological sons in Essex.

Smith told the magazine: "His biological granddad is a tribal king and he's very well known in his home country of Nigeria.

"I remember he came round to Sue's house once in a limo.

"He had an entourage and was wearing an African-style outfit and a hat.

"We were really young at the time and didn't know what was going on. When he walked in he asked Brian to get on his knees.

"Poor Brian was shocked but his mum told him 'you're not getting on your knees for anyone'."

Asked whether Brian's ancestry made him a tribal prince, Natalie, who went to secondary school with Brian and is related to his foster mother, replied: "Yes. Sometimes I wind him up about it but he tells me to shut up."

Brian's parents attempted to get custody of him when he was five years old.

The struggle ended when, aged 11, Brian said he wanted to continue living with his foster mother.

But the contestant does not know that his real father and foster mother were once married to each other.

His foster mother claims Brian's father told her they would have to marry if she wanted to keep looking after Bello because he feared he was going to be deported.

The pair divorced in 2002.

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