Jade admits to Big Brother racism and bullying » Communities » 24dash.com

Celebrity Big Brother star Jade Goody has finally admitted that fellow contestant Shilpa Shetty was subjected to "bullying and racism" on the Channel 4 show.

She told the News of the World her behaviour towards the Bollywood star had been the biggest mistake of her life and she said she is concerned about her family receiving abuse from the public as a result of her behaviour.

Jade admitted Shilpa had been the victim of racist bullying and said she was "shocked and disgusted" by her behaviour on the programme.

The 25-year-old said she needed psychological help and that she would only have herself to blame if it spelt the end of her career.

On Friday she was evicted from the Big Brother house in a public vote after Shilpa was subjected to alleged racial bullying.

The episode sparked international fury and Chancellor Gordon Brown was even forced to comment on it during his visit to India after protesters burned effigies of the show's producers.

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said the row exposed the "ugly underbelly" of bigotry in society that needed to be tackled.

Now a contrite Jade said she has given her £50,000 appearance fee to charity, together with £50,000 from the News of the World. The paper said she was being paid nothing for the interview.

Jade said: "I don't want to make a penny from this. I don't want it. I don't want money from something that is wrong. I'm going to give it all to charity."

Jade said of Shilpa: "She was a victim of bullying and racism, yes. I can understand why she would have said that."

She added she had not realised before how she could be so "intimidating or bullying".

Asked about her labelling the Bollywood actress "Shilpa Poppadom", she said she did not think "poppadom" was a racist word.

She said that "things that I may not think are racist can actually be racist" but it was her own fault for being ignorant about other people's cultures.

"I hate myself right now," she added.

Jade admitted what she had said could "be interpreted as being a racist and a bully" but distanced herself from remarks by other housemates about Shilpa.

"I said poppadom and I said 'f***' in anger but I never said Shilpa wanted to be white or that she should go back to her own country."

She added: "If that's the end of my career then I only have myself to blame."

The reality show star said the withdrawal of her perfume from stores and the cancellation of her Living TV show meant "nothing".

She said she was not warned by Big Brother that there would be no crowd to greet her when she was evicted - it had been banned over fears of a hostile reaction - or briefed about the eviction.

Accepting that she needed help, she said she had told the Big Brother psychologist that she she was worried about her "rage".

Jade said she did not regret going on to the programme because otherwise she "wouldn't have known that my anger and rage are wrong".

But she said: "I'm genuinely worried about how my life will be. I have children but if people shout at me in the street I won't retaliate. I've hit rock bottom and I've never felt as low."

Asked if she would marry boyfriend Jack Tweed she said she "might not be able to afford to now".

On whether she would ever do a reality show again, she said: "I probably need all the work I can get, yes."

Jade has been at the centre of the Celebrity Big Brother race row over her treatment, along with housemates Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara, of Shilpa.

But she has denied being a racist and upon her eviction from the house said she was "disgusted" with her own behaviour.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said he was "delighted" viewers had voted to get rid of Jade while Labour MP and former Europe minister Keith Vaz said it demonstrated that "there is no place in Britain for racist language or behaviour".

More than 50 MPs have backed his Early Day Motion raising concerns about the comments made towards Shilpa and calling on Channel 4 to take action.

Education Secretary Alan Johnson argued that "British values" needed to be taught in schools to combat the "ignorance and bigotry" seen on Celebrity Big Brother.

A poll in the Guardian showed 63% of the British public believed producers should have intervened after Shilpa was subjected to racial abuse.

Media watchdog Ofcom said it had received about 40,000 complaints about the programme. Viewing figures for Friday's eviction show peaked at 8.8 million, Channel 4 said.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, called on Channel 4 to publicly admit it had handled the situation wrongly.

Chairman Luke Johnson should be censured, he demanded, and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell should intervene if the channel failed to take action.

"The board has to make clear that they got it wrong, they intervened too little too late, they should censure Luke Johnson, they should wash their hands of the money - Keith Vaz the MP says give it to charity and I think that's a good idea - and they should think about what they can do to illuminate the reality we have now seen of contemporary racism," he told BBC1's Sunday AM.

He said Mr Johnson's future in the job was "a matter for his board and for his contract".

"But there is no question that if the Channel 4 board does not say tomorrow that Johnson was wrong not to talk about it last week, that his executives were wrong to say that there was no racism involved...if the board does not take that stand then I think Tessa Jowell has to step in and ask if this is a board that is capable of holding a public asset in trust for us.

"I think it is that serious."

He said it was important to recognise that the behaviour of Jade and other housemates "mirrored actually what happens in real life: these sort of low-level private conversations that we don't normally see in public where people say things between friends".

He said his organisation would help her use "what celebrity she has left" to work with young people to educate them about racism.

Copyright Press Associaton 2007.