Ryan Thomas feels sorry for Roxanne Pallett five years after punchgate
Celebrity Big Brother winner Ryan Thomas has admitted he feels sorry for Roxanne Pallett as he opens up on punchgate, five years on from the scandal.
The soap stars entered the house in August 2018 but the nation was left outraged when Roxanne lied on the show, claiming Ryan was a 'woman beater' after their playfight. Ofcom was flooded with over 25,000 complaints from the incident on the then-Channel 5 show that saw Ryan emotionally destroyed.
Five years later, Ryan has opened up on the impact of the incident and recalled an emotional message he received from his brother Scott while he was inside the house. Scott has said the incident helped to show viewers Ryan's "best qualities". He told his brother: "As bad as it was, it was actually the best thing that could have happened to you because it showed off your kind heart, your understanding, your calmness."
Ryan didn't know he had the public support until his brother wrote an emotional letter
Roxanne accused Ryan of punching her, which wasn't the case (REX/Shutterstock)In response, Ryan confessed: "You can’t hide from who you really are in a show like that, it’s so weird to say this but I actually feel sorry for her because when you're in a show like that, and everything’s highlighted and it's public, it can be quite a lonely place and it can be quite a scary place when you put in that situation, so, we move on."
Speaking on the Thomas Bother’s podcast Mancs on the Mic, Ryan admitted he started to think he had done something wrong "because of that intense environment". Things turned for Ryan on the eviction night where housemates received a letter from home. He said: "I got a message from Scott and I was really happy it was Scott because Scott's amazing words. He wrote this message saying, 'we're all here for you, bro... we all know the truth'. It's so weird I get emotional about it now because it's over. And I don't even think about it."
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Scott added: "I'm getting emotional. The maddest thing was for us watching it was that you were kind of oblivious to what was going on and you were in this house, questioning yourself and I remember when you broke down and it killed me because it was like, the whole nation was on your side and had your back."
Ryan shared that he had no idea the nation were supporting him until they got to the eviction night. He recalled hearing the outside audience chant "get Roxanne out". The actor added: "I just released because I knew it wasn't about me, I knew it was about her, but when you're in there, it's one of the most lonely places that you can ever go to because you don't know these people from day one, you're building a relationship with people that you've never really met before."
A year after appearing on Big Brother, former Emmerdale actress Roxanne admitted she considered taking her own life following the incident. Making her TV comeback on The Jeremy Vine Show, Roxanne described how it felt being on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse after leaving the house. Asked by the host if she considered suicide, Roxanne replied: "Yes."
"Looking back at those clips it's awful. It was a really awful time for a lot of people," said Roxanne, shaking her head in horror. "It's only now that I watch those back that I realise how far I've come and what a bad place I was in." Roxanne said that in her time out of the public eye she has 'educated' herself so she'll never have to be in a similar situation again. "I never want be that person again. I never want to react like a situation like that," she told Vine.
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