Big Brother star Laura Carter tears up as she claims reality show ‘ruined’ her life: ‘It was like being in a living nightmare’-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

(Picture: James Shaw/REX/Shutterstock)

Big Brother star Laura Carter has opened up about her experience on the Channel 5 programme saying she felt ‘all-consuming self-destruct’ during her time as a housemate.

The reality TV star appeared on the 2016 edition of the show, where she was linked to fellow contestant Marco Pierre White Jr.

The actor, who had minor roles in soaps including Emmerdale and Holby City, finished in ninth place on the 17th edition of the show.

Reflecting on the juggernaut series, which had been axed but is being brought back next year, Laura said that they weren’t aware the theme had been ‘paranoia.’

She explained: ‘We didn’t know that was the theme. It was a real mind f***. I had no idea and neither did anyone else. It was like being in a living nightmare.

Laura was also chosen by the public to take part in a ‘humiliating’ task where they dressed up as crows and had items pelted at them.

She said: ‘It was really degrading, horrible things that were coming out and it was always me.’

Laura contained: ‘I went into the toilet after and was wiping everything off me and I thought, “The public hate me, they want to humiliate me,” And I did feel humiliated.

‘It was almost like this switch went [off] inside of me and it was like self-destruct mode. I’d been pushed into this corner, I felt like there was no hope for me. I was made to feel like such a bad person.

Laura and Evelyn Ellis in the diary room (Picture: AOB/LNG)

‘I was made to feel everyone hated me. It was an all-consuming feeling of self-destruct.’

After the show ended, Laura said she had therapy and had realised she had wore a ‘mask’ to ‘protect myself and my feelings.’

Laura came in ninth place (Credits: Channel 5)

She added: ‘I lost all self-worth. I forgot that my family were watching, my friends were watching.

‘I’d sit in silence – I had nothing left to give. It was the darkest, loneliest time of my life. I realised my life was not going to go back to how it was.

‘My life changed but it literally ruined my life. It ruined it.’

Reality TV shows have repeatedly come under fire for the treatment of contestants and lack of after-care.

Ricky Gervais is among those to have expressed disgust at reality programmes saying they ‘prey on mentally ill people.’

Speaking at Oxford Union, he said: ‘‘From X Factor in the preliminary rounds when they wheel out the mentally ill to be sniggered at by millionaires, we’re a part of that.

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‘People having proper nervous breakdowns in Big Brother, we’re all part of that. That’s what drama is, when it’s real, it’s conflict.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Channel 5 for comment.

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