Big Brother's Chantelle to marry singer Preston

LONDON, Apr 12 (Reuters) Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle Houghton is to marry Sam Preston, lead singer of pop group The Ordinary Boys, only a few months after they met on the reality television show.

The 22-year-old, who entered the show as an unknown and emerged as the latest tabloid star, beamed as she announced their engagement to reporters at an awards ceremony in London late yesterday.

''I'm feeling like the happiest girl in the world,'' she told Sky News television. ''Preston asked me last night to marry him and I accepted. I didn't have to think about it for a minute.'' The pair met on the camera-filled set of the Channel 4 TV series in January and have since become a regular fixture in celebrity magazines and tabloid newspapers.

Houghton worked as a lookalike of American hotel heiress Paris Hilton before finding fame on Big Brother. Tabloids dubbed her Paris Travelodge, after the budget hotel chain.

She appeared as a ''fake'' celebrity whose task was to convince fellow housemates -- including entertainer Michael Barrymore and anti-war MP George Galloway -- that she was a singer with a minor hit single under her belt.

Fans were won over by her uncomplicated, sunny nature, while critics called her a dumb blonde, characterised by her oft-repeated catchphrase ''Oh My God!''.

During the show, she said of Galloway: ''He's a right chauvinistic pig, whatever that means.'' Despite both having partners when they entered the Big Brother house, their on-screen flirting prompted speculation they would end up together.

Their engagement made front page news on Britain's biggest selling daily paper, the Sun, and was reported on the BBC and Sky News.

The Sun said Preston, 24, proposed to his former girlfriend Camille Aznar when he left the Big Brother house before ending their relationship.

REUTERS KD PM1401