“I’ve got pretty miffed when they had a pop at my beautiful niece who couldn’t say anything for herself.”

But Goldsmith wasted no time in exploiting his royal connections as he made his grand entrance on the live ITV1 show.

Introducing himself to viewers as “uncle to the future Queen of our country, Catherine Middleton, the current Princess of Wales”, he said of his niece: “She is simply perfect”.

Asked if the princess would be watching the show, he said: “If she is, it will be behind the sofa, I guess… It will be a nice one in a nice house, I can guarantee that.”

Goldsmith revealed: “The first time I met William, Catherine was cooking and William said, ‘Hi, do you want a cup of tea?’ Very normal.”

In comments that may send a ripple of fear through Kensington Palace, he added: “Every part of me is just riddled with mischief and danger”.

‘[I am] an absolute nightmare to live with. There’s a reason I’ve had four wives.’

Gary Goldsmith, the uncle of the Princess of Wales, entering the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother house

He said he was “an absolute nightmare to live with”, noting: “There’s a reason I’ve had four wives”.

Goldsmith, wearing a white polo neck and matching jacket, then danced down the “runway” into the house with his arms outstretched, like a child pretending to be an aeroplane.

He is said to have been “read the riot act” by Carole Middleton, amid apparent concern that he would be unable to resist spilling family secrets on the prime-time television show.

He did little to allay such fears as he used the newspaper interview to admit that he has got “a self-destruct mode”, “opinions about opinions” and a mouth that “runs away with me”.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have never publicly reacted to the volley of criticism that has been aimed at them from the Sussexes, via their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, their Netflix documentary series, or Harry’s memoir, Spare.

The couple have suggested that William and Catherine are cold behind the scenes and jealous of Meghan’s success. Catherine has also been accused of commenting on their son, Prince Archie’s skin colour.

“Kate is 100 per cent not racist, neither is Carole,” Goldsmith said.

Loading

“My family is not racist and for Kate to be portrayed as that is just so far removed from the truth, it’s ridiculous.”

Goldsmith is not thought to have had any contact with Kensington Palace about his Big Brother appearance, either to ask permission to take part or to thrash out the terms of his deal.

The tattooed father-of-one, known to his royal niece as Uncle G, has often been described as the “black sheep” of the family.

In 2009, he was filmed by undercover reporters at his Ibiza villa, La Maison de Bang Bang, apparently cutting up cocaine on the kitchen worktop and in 2017, he narrowly avoided jail after being convicted of attacking his wife during a drunken street row.

He has admitted he does not “take instruction or being controlled very well”.

Goldsmith was joined on the show by an array of British celebrities including TV personalities Sharon Osbourne and Fern Britton, broadcaster Louis Walsh and chef Levi Roots.

A Kensington Palace spokesman refused to be drawn into a conversation about the show, which first aired on Channel 4 in 2000.

The series, hosted by AJ Odudu and Will Best, will be on television for almost three weeks.