A BIG Brother contestant who was booted of the show for historic “offensive tweets” has spoken out.
Ellis Hillon, 20, apologised and said the drama was “the worst experience of her life.”
Ellis who was ejected from the original reality show on her 20th birthday – has been too upset to leave her home.
She said she was left “devastated” since being portrayed as a racist over comments made on Twitter when she was aged just 15.
“It’s been horrible, I just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up,” said Ellis.
Ellis , who spoke from her home said she has been close to tears.
Just 19 hours after first appearing on national TV, Ellis was sent home by Channel 5 bosses after comments she made on Twitter several years ago surfaced.
Ellis had posted on September 11, 2014: “Oh f*** aye its 9/11!! RIP to everyone who died n f*** they smelly P*** terrorist b*******!!!”
Big Brother bosses called Ellis into the Diary Room and then delivered the shock news that she would be removed from the house immediately because of
her “offensive and unacceptable” online posts.
She recalled: “I couldn’t believe it, I was totally shocked. I saw ‘2014’ on the sheet of paper and I definitely couldn’t remember writing that stuff on Twitter.
“But I wasn’t going to say that I didn’t write it because I wasn’t going to lie. I always want to tell the truth.
“I responded, ‘yeah…but years ago’ because it was so long ago.”
Big Brother asked Ellis if she had anything to say and she replied: “No. Apart from that I’m sorry.”
Ellis told the Reformer: “At that point I thought that the whole nation was against me. I said I was sorry and just wanted to go home, I was so embarrassed.
“When I left the Diary Room I felt empty. I had to sit in a room for a while until Big Brother got my cases.
“I do regret writing that back then and I would never say anything like that now. I was 15 – you don’t know what’s going through your head at that point as a teenager.”
Within an hour of being removed from the house, Ellis was put into a taxi with her suitcases for a six-and-a-half hour journey home.
Show producers phoned her mum, who was shocked to learn that her daughter would be arriving home in a cab after midnight.
Ellis said: “I thought my mum was going to be angry but she was so worried. She rushed out to the taxi when I arrived to give me a hug.
“I couldn’t stop crying and at that point I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to live, I just can’t face this’.”
After finally walking through her front door at 12.30am last Saturday, Ellis ran straight upstairs to her bedroom.
She said: “I just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up.
“A couple of years before all of this I was feeling quite down for a while, and I thought this was my time to be happy and live my dream.
“I don’t think I can be strong, I don’t. I’ve been so upset and don’t understand everything that’s happened.
“Right now, it’s like ‘where do I go from here?’
“I don’t want to go outside. People are going to be asking me lots of questions and I just can’t take it right now.”
Some national newspapers have wrongly reported that Ellis faces the sack from her full-time job at a McDonald’s in Glasgow.
Ellis, who was on unpaid leave while in the Big Brother house, said: “I’ve worked there for three years and my manager and workmates have been in touch asking how I am.
“I get on great with my workmates and they don’t have a bad word to say about me.
“We’ve got a board on the wall with customers’ feedback and I always get great comments for always smiling and going that extra mile for all our customers.
“I just really wish I’d been given a chance on Big Brother to show that I’m a nice person.”
