Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu has revealed she didn’t turn up to the Celebrity Big Brother finale because her management felt she was in a ‘vulnerable’ place.
The British-Turkish Love Island star, 29, made very few friends during her stint in the house, with some fans worried her behaviour had turned the public against her after a number of outbursts.
But now the TV personality has insisted that her behaviour in the house, which saw her leave the show to a chorus of boos and then blame ITV editors for making her look bad, was down to relationship problems off-camera.
Admitting that going into the house in the first place was a bad move she wishes she could take back, Ekin-Su has now revealed she was told her ex-boyfriend Davide Sanclimenti had cheated on her.
‘I should never have gone into the Big Brother house. I was angry, hurt, maybe a bit bitter, definitely insecure – Big Brother is not where you go to heal heartache, let me tell you.’
She told The Sun: ‘I went into the show thinking that I could rebuild myself after everything that happened with Davide, but I came off worse. My guard was up.’
After saying she blamed herself for making a poor decision to enter the reality series in the first place, she did defend her actions on the show by insisting she wasn’t feeling her true self.
‘I blame myself for making a poor choice in my career. People could see that I wasn’t myself, and I can understand why they thought I was being fake.
‘I never wanted to believe the allegations against Davide but people would tell me I was being cheated on all the time. I was so scared of being alone, and I didn’t know who the hell Ekin-Su was meant to be without him.’
Ekin-Su and Davide announced that they had split 11 months after their Love Island victory, with Davide saying he was ‘grateful for the memories and opportunities’ they shared together.
In the aftermath of their break-up, she claimed to have seen images on Davide’s phone that caused her to believe he was cheating on her while the pair were filming a documentary together.
Shortly after, Ekin-Su entered the Big Brother house, and quickly went from Love Island hero to Celebrity Big Brother villain following a run of outbursts.
After mingling almost exclusively with former X Factor judges Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne – a move which some deemed cynical – she was hostile towards other housemates.
She also seemed to take aim at women who post content on OnlyFans, saying: ‘I’d rather have zero pounds than a million pounds doing it the wrong way, but have pride.’
Upon exiting the house, she also got into a heated argument with Strictly Come Dancing star Layton Williams, while host Will Best referred to her as ‘Ekin Boo Hoo Hoo’.
On Instagram, she wrote after her departure from the show: ‘Haven’t felt myself for a long time, I had kind of lost myself and for a while didn’t know who I was beyond being defined by ex-relationships or TV shows, and that needs to change!’
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