Yahoo News Big Brother's Ellis apologises after being kicked off
Former Big Brother housemate Ellis Hillon has said she is "heartbroken" over the resurfaced social media posts that led to her being removed from the show.
Only hours after Ellis entered the house on Friday night, Big Brother called her into the Diary Room and informed her that she'd been ejected because of an outcry on social media over "offensive and unacceptable" tweets from her past.
This officially made her the housemate with the shortest stay ever in the 18-year history of Big Brother with just 19 hours in the house. Ellis subsequently deleted her Twitter and has remained out of the public eye for a few days.
In her first interview, the fast-food worker from Glasgow offered a public apology to any of those offended by the tweets she wrote about 9/11 and other sensitive topics when she was 15 years old.
"I want to stress how sorry I am about any offence and upset that was caused due to what I have said on social media," she told The Sun.
"I understand that I was totally in the wrong and I should never have said such horrible things. All the comments were from my teenage years and I am deeply ashamed of them. I didn't stop to think how they could be so hurtful at the time."
Ellis added that she felt terrible that her "dream" of competing on Big Brother had been tainted by this controversy, admitting she was disappointed not to be given a second chance by the show.
"If I had been given the chance I would have shown everyone that I'm not racist," she said. "I was getting on very well and interacting with the other housemates from different backgrounds and I want people to know that I'm not a bad person. I hope people can forgive me."
When her removal aired on Sunday night, viewers were torn over whether she should have just been given a formal warning, since that's the punishment Rodrigo Alves received for twice saying the N-word during the recent celebrity series.
Big Brother continues on Wednesday (September 19) at 10pm on Channel 5, followed by Rylan Clark-Neal breaking down all of the highlights on Bit on the Side at 11.05pm.
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