S CLUB 7 - JO DENIES BB RACISM

JO DENIES BB RACISM

Former S Club 7 singer Jo O'Meara has denied racism in the house after her eviction from Celebrity Big Brother last night.

The pop star received 48.4 per cent of the public vote after facing eviction. Comedienne Cleo Rocos received 27.9 per cent of the votes, making them the fourth and fifth stars to be evicted from this series of the reality television show.

When shown a montage of the news headlines caused after alleged racist incidents in the house regarding the treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty by herself, Jade Goody and model Danielle Lloyd, O'Meara asserted: "It looks worse than it was. I didn't ever mean it in that way. I'm not a racist person. I'm really not."

Defending her actions in the house, including mimicking Shilpa's accent, O'Meara insisted the incident was without malice: "We were doing that with her and she was finding it funny."

However the former pop star, 27, admitted that she and Shilpa did not get on that well but insisted that their lack of connection came regardless of race. "I'm not going to deny that Shilpa did aggravate me a lot. You can't click with everybody you meet. It's not a racist thing," she said.

The reports of alleged racism and bullying of Shilpa in the house led to the public to register over 50,000 complaints with the media watchdog, Ofcom. Sponsorship of the show by the Carphone Warehouse was cancelled halfway through the series as the mobile phone store sought to disassociate its brand with the programme.