Celebrity Big Brother winner Ryan Thomas fought back tears as he recalled the moment Roxanne Pallett accused him of being a “woman beater” on the reality television series.
The soap stars entered the house in August 2018, however, the nation was soon left outraged after Roxanne, 40, lied on the show, accusing Ryan, 39, of punching her “like a boxer”.
Ofcom was flooded with over 25,000 complaints from the incident on the then-Channel 5 show that saw Ryan emotionally destroyed.
Five years on from the punch-gate scandal, the former Coronation Street star who portrayed Jason Grimshaw, opened up for the first time since the incident.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Mancs On The Mic – a podcast fronted by Ryan and his two brothers Scott and Adam – the soap star explained: “I just couldn’t put my finger on why this was happening.”
READ MORE Strictly star Adam Thomas’ brother Ryan admits he ‘can’t cry anymore’ over show
He continued: “But I didn’t want to make a thing of it and go, ‘Why are you not all talking to me?’ because I thought it was me.
“I was the problem for Roxanne, I sort of broke down because I felt lonely and I felt like everyone else thought that I was the problem and that I’d done something wrong and then I start to question, ‘Did I do something wrong?’
“Because it was that intense, in that environment, and then it was eviction night and you get your family’s messages from home. I got a message from Scott and I was really happy it was Scott because Scott’s amazing words, [jokes] he’s not really good in person.
“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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Interjecting, former Love Island star Scott tearfully added: “I’m getting emotional. The maddest thing for us, watching it, was that you were kind of oblivious to what was going on and you were in this house, questioning yourself.
“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 was issued with a formal warning over the incident, while Roxanne asked to sleep in a separate room because she no longer felt “safe” in the shared bedroom.
After calling for Ryan to be removed from the television show, Roxanne quit the series and faced backlash from viewers for the accusations.
“The night of you sending me that message which was emotional enough as was,” Ryan added. “They then did the eviction and I got to hear the words, ‘Get Roxanne out.’
“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.”
Roxanne, who played Jo Stiles on Emmerdale, later issued an apology to her Celebrity Big Brother co-star and said she had “overreacted” to the incident.
“When I look back on that footage, as soon as I left the house… I got it wrong,” she said on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine show.
Mancs on the Mic
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