Soap star Roxanne Pallett has walked out of Celebrity Big Brother after accusing Coronation Street's Ryan Thomas of punching her.
The incident has caused huge uproar, and Ofcom, the British broadcasting regulatory body, received over 11,000 complaints about the episode which aired on August 30.
Speaking in the diary room, Pallett said: "He actually punched me like a boxer would punch a bag. And we weren’t play-fighting, there was no banter; it wasn’t a joke."
Big Brother originally tried to deal with the matter in-house, and spoke to Thomas, saying: "At 3.55pm today Big Brother noticed that, whilst almost play-fighting, you punched Roxanne in the ribs. This caused Roxanne to say 'Ow, that bloody hurt'. Whether you intended to hurt Roxanne or not is irrelevant."
"Before you entered the Big Brother house, rules regarding unacceptable behaviour were explained to you. You have broken this rule.
"Big Brother is issuing you with a formal warning in regards to physical contact in the house. Any repetition and Big Brother may have no choice but to remove you from the house."
Thomas apologised, but also replied "I think we both know, and Roxanne, that there was no malice or anger in anything I did. I promise you've got it wrong."
A tearful Pallett told Thomas, "I don't want this to be your ending, I don't want this to be my ending."
However, on Saturday morning, the CBB Twitter account announced that Pallett had decided to leave the Big Brother house. Pallett has yet to make a public comment.
https://twitter.com/bbuk/status/1035803038336864256
