BIG BROTHER - DUCHESS SUPPORTS 'BROKEN' O'MEARA

DUCHESS SUPPORTS 'BROKEN' O'MEARA

Big Brother villain Jo O'Meara has won encouragement from an unlikely source after the Duchess of York signalled her support for the singer.

Jo, who used to sing with S Club 7, became a hate figure for many viewers after she was accused of bullying the eventual winner Shilpa Shetty and also making racist comments.

Together with Jade Goody and model Danielle Lloyd, Jo ganged up on the Bollywood star, with Ofcom receiving over 40,000 complaints from viewers about what many saw as racially-motivated bullying.

Now, after Jo was interviewed in a state of some distress on GMTV, the Duchess of York has offered her support.

Like Jo, Sarah Ferguson was the subject of much public animosity and press attention and she rang the television company to register her feelings.

"I know what it's like to be vilified. She is a broken girl," she said.

"She should be removed from the stocks."

Jo, 27, denies she made racist remarks, insisting producers took her comments out of context and showed her in a bad light.

If there is one person who is currently held in lower esteem by the British public it is arguably Jade, who was today singled out by a survey for the Credit Show.

According to a poll of Britons by the event organisers six out of ten people would not lend her enough change to get her car out of a car park.