Does Roxanne deserve to be ‘the most hated woman in Britain’?
● Her assault accusations on CBB generate over 25,000 complaints from the public ● Former co-stars call her “dangerous” and slam the actress on social media for lying ● She breaks down and admits she “overreacted” because her “insecurities were heightened
She was forced to face the public and address her actions in two televised interviews last week, just days after causing one of the biggest scandals in the history of Celebrity Big Brother.
After what appeared to be a playful jab from fellow housemate Ryan Thomas, Roxanne Pallett claimed the actor had “punched her repeatedly”, and called him a “woman-beater”. After he was given an official warning, she even demanded to sleep in a separate bedroom to be away from him.
The former Emmerdale star, 35, was forced to retract her allegations after being shown the footage when she left the house.
The troubled actress, who had her first interview since leaving the house with Jeremy Vine for his Channel 5 show, admitted she’d got the incident “wrong”, and had “overreacted” because her “insecurities were heightened.”
She also explained that she had been in an abusive relationship, adding, “I’ve actually been a victim of domestic violence years ago. My reaction is a telltale sign of being in a situation like that.”
Although Jeremy was later criticised for going easy on Roxanne, he defended his stance, saying he “feared she could take her own life” while charity Women’s Aid was quick to back the star, Tweeting, “Play fighting may not seem serious, but if you have experienced domestic abuse it can seem frightening and even trigger memories of the abuse”.
TROUBLED
Aside from her former violent relationship, Roxanne has also admitted she has had a difficult past. She cut contact with her dad when she was a child and was raised by her mum and grandmother. The family suffered a devastating house fire when she was 16 – where they lost all their possessions – and a year later, Roxanne’s grandmother passed away.
In 2009, she faced more heartache when her best friend committed suicide. When she spoke to Closer about this tragic incident at the time, she was in floods of hysterical tears and admitted she didn’t know how she would get over her friend’s death.
Then, opening up to Closer again in 2016, the actress said, “I’ve only ever been really close to three people in my life – my mum, my grandma and my best friend, and I lost two out of three.” And just two months ago, Roxanne had a serious car crash, which resulted in her being airlifted to hospital. She hinted she was on edge before CBB started when she said to host Emma Willis, “When I unravel… well, you’ll see. [I’m like] Disney gone wrong.”
FRAGILE
In her exit interview, with Emma, the actress broke down in tears as she said, “It cripples me with embarrassment and shame, and I agree with everyone’s perceptions of what happened.”
She added, “I only have my mum. She knows how sensitive I am. She knows a lot of things in my past have made me a little bit too fragile.”
But despite her vulnerable state, many viewers didn’t believe her apology, with one angrily Tweeting, “Roxanne’s apology was fake. She’s just sorry she got caught out,” while another added, “She’s not sincere at all, it’s all rehearsed.”
Meanwhile, fellow soap actors took to Twitter to voice their support for former Coronation Street star Ryan, 34, with many publicly criticising Roxanne for her actions.
Former Eastenders actor Sam Attwater called the actress “dangerous”, and claimed she accused him of hitting her during Rocky Horror Picture Show – before insisting she had been the one to hit him.
And former co-star Connor Byrne sensationally claimed that Roxanne had falsely accused him of violence when they starred together in pantomime last year.
An astonishing total of 21 former co-stars publicly slammed Roxanne for her past behaviour. Her former on-screen Emmerdale husband Kelvin Fletcher Tweeted, “She. Is. Evil,” while Danny Miller – who has starred on the soap since 2008 – wrote, “Roxanne’s a known, compulsive liar.”
PANIC ATTACK
To add to the controversy, the actress was back on screens last weekend on Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls, filmed earlier this year and showing her suffering a panic attack before her shock exit just five days in.
Speaking to CBB’S Emma last week, Roxanne appeared close to tears as she described herself as “the most hated woman in Britain”. We spoke to body language expert Judi James to ask her if the star appeared genuinely remorseful, or simply playing for the cameras.