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 that her biological father was working on films in Hollywood.

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 , which she joined – despite not being married – as a way to promote her cosmetics business.

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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 . 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.”

Ever open to new experiences – Danielle has even sailed across the Atlantic – she had worked with Jill Edwards, who trained Jimmy Carr, at Komedia, the iconic comedy venue in Brighton, before joining CBB and, after her eviction, she became 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.”

But it was a cousin living in the US who turned the joke into genuine doubt – telling Danielle that, when her mum Eileen became pregnant with her younger brother in 1978, there was no mention of her in family letters.

She says she spoke to her parents on a visit home to Ireland, telling them: “There’s something not adding up here.” And she returned to the US with a “really feeling”, sensing her parents had dodged her concerns. So she told them mischievously she was getting a paternity test.

That sparked a response she was not ready for – which came in a 1am phone call from her dad, Dominic Meagher. Danielle recalled: “I got home from one of the best nights of my stand-up career, and it turned into a horror. “He told me, ‘Don’t make this a big deal but I met your mother when she was four months pregnant.’

“The phone call lasted five-and-a-half minutes. I stayed up till 6am. I was distraught. And I thought, ‘So who is my dad then?’ ”

Among the worries keeping her awake was her lifelong feeling she had not truly belonged – until she settled in LA. Being in the US had made her feel complete.

Danielle, whose memoir Dr Botox Spills the Tea is out now, had already been due to fly home five days after her father’s surprise call in March 2019. Before flying, she phoned her mum.

She recalled: “She said, ‘Well isn’t that great, Dad told you? Anyway, what do you want for dinner when you come home?’” But once Danielle was back in Ireland, her mum was ready to open up about her biological dad.

She said: “Mum told me his name was Todd, she’d met him the summer she finished school, at the Fleadh Cheoil music festival in County Kerry in 1974. “She said he was American and his birthday was July 14, the same as my mum – who had just turned 18.”

She admits she was so overwhelmed that she broke down. She said: “I’m very proud to be half American. This was good news. But to be lied to all your life is not cool.”

Back in the US, Danielle became obsessed with finding Todd. She said: “I didn’t do stand-up for a month, I didn’t see my friends. I just looked for my biological father.”

Knowing only his first name and his birthday, she sent off an ancestry saliva test. She said: “I’m surprised the FBI don’t want me to work for them. I can tell you the name of every person who played at that Fleadh.”

Finally she got a match, linking her to an uncle called Michael Bray. She said: “I went on his , found out he had a brother, Todd, and I got his phone number.”

That man was Todd Bray McCune. But when she called, she says a lady told her: “I think you have the wrong number, we were married a long time, and did not have any children.”

But Danielle revealed: “Then Todd came on the phone. I tried to stay calm and told him the story – and he finished it off for me. He had told the story to his wife many times about the girl he had lost his virginity to.

“He was 15 or 16 but had told her he was 18. We chatted for 20 minutes, and he asked, ‘Can you call me tomorrow so we can talk more?’ And he added, ‘I was a bit wild then, so you might have another sibling in Cork!’ ”

She said Todd told her more in a one-hour call than her family ever had, telling how he had met her mum and spent the weekend with her.

He had not returned to the US immediately as her mum had thought, but had stayed living in Cork. She said: “He’d been born in California and moved to Ireland at 12 with his sea captain dad and his mum, Peggy. Some of his family stayed in Ireland and still live there now, but Todd went back home when he was 18.”

He landed an art department job in Hollywood, working on films for Robin Williams, among others. But when she finally met him and his wife Alida in San Francisco, she realised his health was fading. Danielle said: “He was only 59 but he had congenital heart disease. When I left he said ‘thank you’ and gave me a big hug. I kissed his forehead and promised I’d come back.”

But although they spoke on email, and Todd made plans to send her a ticket to visit again, he died in the early hours of July 29, 2019. Yet in all the joy and the sadness, the irony of having an American father has not been lost on Danielle.

She said: “I’ve paid over $30k in processing fees for my 01B visa and also my Green Card – which were both awarded for “exceptional talent – and can apply for US citizenship in four years and nine months.

“But I guess the joke’s on me. Had my parents been honest, I could have had my US passport from birth.”

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