EXCLUSIVE BB JO: I'M NOT SORRY AND I'D DO IT AGAIN
By Grant Hodgson And Nikhita Mahajan
BIG Brother villain Jo O'Meara last night shamelessly refused to say sorry for bullying Shilpa Shetty... then attacked her for getting "special treatment" inside the house. In a shockingly arrogant interview, she also defended her vile comments about Indians being skinny and said: "They should take what I said as a compliment." Amazingly, she then claimed the furious row surrounding the racist bullying of the Bollywood star has left HER on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Jo, 27, said: "I am NOT a racist and I am NOT a bully. I was bullied at lot at school and I hate bullies. It made me bulimic. I can't say sorry for something I'm not guilty of. If I went back in there then I'd say it all again. I wouldn't change a thing from my BB experience, even now, because I know the truth. Big Brother has shown me unfairly. They have not show me as I am." The former S Club 7 singer added: "I was myself in the house, absolutely. But BB seems to have chosen all the bad bits. Everyone now thinks I'm a Fag-Ash Lil who hangs around in my dressing gown all day with unwashed hair - but it's not true."
Jo was kicked out by the public vote on Friday to jeers from fans outraged at her role alongside Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd in making Bollywood star Shilpa's life hell. Viewers were horrified when Jo mocked Shilpa's cooking - claiming her chicken curry was undercooked - and imitated her accent. In the most astonishing outburst, she said: "All Indians are skinny because they get sick though eating undercooked food." But Jo yesterday refused to take back those words and said: "If anything, I look at that as a compliment. It's nice to be thin. It's what everybody wants to be."
She added: "I have no problem with Indian food. I don't mind it being made by hand. I have Indian food four times a week. But Shilpa's chicken was raw, it had blood spurting out of it and I know you can't eat raw chicken without getting extremely sick. Of course I wasn't going to eat it. I have been accused of mocking Shilpa's accent, but that's not racist. My cousin married an Indian and I make fun of their kids's voices. Then they make funny Cockney noises back at me. It's just a big game."
At first, Jo had no idea who Shilpa was. She said: "When I first saw her I thought she was stunningly beautiful, but I didn't know who she was. There had been rumours of a Bollywood actress going in, so when I saw her I knew it was her. I admit we didn't get on - but I deny the friction was caused because of a culture clash. It was just that I was in a strange house with a lot of people and it is impossible to get on with everyone. I just couldn't bond with her - I don't know why. It's not that she is Indian, I just couldn't relate to her. I sometimes found her very dominating and controlling. Those things are magnified thousands of times in a house where nothing goes on. Silly things like being fussy about cooking quickly gets on top of you. But it had nothing to do with race. Does it mean I hate Bradley from S Club because he's black? Him and me were incredibly close. We were like brother and sister, we still are and I know he will back me up 100 per cent. I was probably closer to him than anyone else in the band."
And she claimed: "I also felt Shilpa got special treatment. She was always in the diary room. I couldn't work out why she was going in there all the time. I thought she was a 'plant' sent in by BB like Chantelle last year. I started to distrust her. One day she decided she had to have a new bed because of problems with her back. All the housemates then had to wait outside the bedroom while this new orthopaedic bed was brought in. I also suffer from back complaints and thought that was excessive. When I complained all Big Brother gave me was Ibuprofen. It wasn't fair. In the end I saw a physio, but I was never offered a new bed. It made me think Shilpa was getting whatever she asked BB for."
Fighting back tears, Jo also denied being part of a gang with Jade and Danielle. "I wasn't friends with Jade or Dan before the show, but in the house we really got on well. We were the young ones. We had a lot in common. I deny we were part of a 'gang' though. We didn't stick together. I'd go to Jade for a bit, then Dan, then Jermaine. Jade would spend most of her time with Jack or her mum, Jackiey, and Dan would be off talking to everyone. The truth is I spent most of my time with Cleo. She was on my wavelength and we giggled all the time. We had the same sense of humour."
In the infamous argument about Oxo cubes between Jade and Shilpa, in which loudmouth Jade yelled: "You're a f***ing liar and a fake", Jo said: "Shilpa was in the wrong and so was Jade. Shilpa was asking for trouble by having a go at Jade about something so trivial. Jade isn't going to back down from that type of confrontation. I knew there was going to be an argument as soon as Shilpa opened her mouth. I hate arguments, they make me nervous. When that happened I just sat on the sofa not knowing what to do. It wasn't my argument. I didn't want anything to do with it. When Shilpa said, 'Jo, aren't you going to say something?' I didn't know what to do." In fact, after the argument, Jo chuckled on camera: "That's made me feel better. I must say that's made my day."
Yesterday, Jo said: "I was aware Jade was being aggressive, but thought I would sit there and hide away. Afterwards when the bickering continued, I did think it had got to stop. I was bullied for years at school over my love of music. I had verbal and mental abuse - so I am dead against it. I now think BB created that tension and conflict on purpose to make the show interesting." Former A Team star Dirk Benedict was also at the brunt of Jo's taunts. After branding him a "miserable old man" she told the housemates: "He's at breaking point. We just need to give him that extra tip over the edge." She later warned: "He's opening himself right up for torture. Wait 'til I start."
But last night Jo insisted: "Dirk and I were just winding each other up. We play-acted a lot of the time.." Jo also revealed that she suffered two panic attacks in the house. "They were both a nighttime. It was when I was at my lowest. I MISSED home and couldn't speak to anyone. I missed being normal. I missed the telly. It was weird. I hated it. Once I calmed down I was OK though. Cleo and Ian helped me. Living in the house is awful. You can't sleep properly at night and they won't let you doze during the day. Whenever I closed my eyes in the day BB would play horrible noises including someone being sick and someone suffering from diarrhoea. It's enough to tip anyone over the edge."
Talking about her eviction on Friday, Jo said: "The crowd terrified me. It was the worse feeling I have ever had. When we went up the steps I held Cleo's hand and she looked at me as if to say, 'Come on kid, be strong'. I thought, 'With her there I can do this'. I thought I couldn't make it down the stairs my legs were shaking so much." And Jo claimed she was terrified after receiving two death threats over what happened in the house. "I was told about them late on Friday. I couldn't sleep, and I haven't eaten. I feel very drained. I can't get my head around it. I don't know what's going to happen to me. I hope I'm not attacked in the street for what has happened in BB. It's not right."
She added: "Back at my hotel on Friday I was checking for cameras behind the mirrors. It's like I'm having a breakdown. I'm worried about being watched by helicopters. It's going to take a long time to get over this. I think I was naive going in there. I was aware everything we said and did was being picked up, but I wanted to be myself, I wasn't going to change. I'm glad I did it because now I really know how strong I am. I wanted to walk out a couple of times but I stuck with it. It's made me stronger in a lot of ways and I wouldn't change a thing. I am proud to have stayed in so long. I really am. I never had such pressure in S Club - the attacks in BB are so personal."
Jo added: "I know Jade gave her interview money to charity but I don't feel the need to do that. I have done nothing wrong. I don't know what to do now. I'm taking my time to see what happens. I never expected to relaunch my singing career on the back of BB. I am just going to go home and get my life back on track."
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You couldn't make it up...
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