Klodian Çela was one of the most commented characters on “Big Brother Albania 3”, but his participation in the 2010 format took on another dimension when he spoke openly about his sexual orientation.
In an Albania that was very different from today’s in terms of public discussion on this topic, Klod’s statement immediately became one of the most discussed events of that edition. He was among the first to speak so openly about homosexuality on a television format with a wide audience in the country.
The reactions were not limited to the network or the television studio. There were also protests in his hometown against the statement made on “Big Brother”, while Klod’s case opened a major public debate about the way Albanian society treated LGBT people.
Years later, in 2023, Klodi returned to that period during an interview on “Invitation at 5”, revealing that what happened after the “Big Brother” cameras were turned off was much more difficult than the public had seen.
“I came out and I couldn’t find my family in the house where I had been living. My parents had gone to live in a rented house in Durrës. I left Big Brother and was faced with the situation where I had to provide support to my family.”
I tried, but no one knows that after that reality show, I was in the hospital for 3 months. The comfort of my family was destroyed and I didn’t expect that people would be so backward and that not even institutions would give me support. In short, I was alone. Many abused and slandered me en masse. Later, my mother got sick and I was caught unprepared,” Klodi said.
According to him, at that time he did not find the support he expected even from the LGBT community.
“They asked me for a diploma for a job, while I only had a high school diploma,” he said.
Despite the difficult period he described, Klodian Çela’s life then took a different direction. At the time of the interview, he revealed that he was living outside Albania and working as an image director for an international company.
The 2023 interview thus brought back to attention not only one of the most discussed moments in the history of “Big Brother” in Albania, but also what Klodi says he experienced after leaving the house and having to deal with the reaction outside it.