With Ryan Thomas set to take on Dancing on Ice, fans have been discussing another occasion that the actor took part in a reality show. Ryan won Celebrity Big Brother back in 2018, but his journey in the house was anything but smooth, with an incident involving Roxanne Pallett receiving a huge amount of complaints and eventually leading to Roxanne quitting the show. So what happened?
Roxanne, who is perhaps best known for her role as Jo Stiles in Emmerdale, joined CBB alongside Coronation Street actor Ryan. While in the house, Roxanne asked Ryan if he needed any laundry done while tidying up, with Ryan playfully pretending to punch her by shadowboxing in response, leading her to complain about him in the diary room.
She later told her fellow housemates that he had punched her repeatedly in the ribs "like a boxer punches a bag", demonstrating to another contestant by punching him hard. After Ryan protested that he hadn’t touched her, Roxanne overheard and told the other contestants that he was lying - later saying that she felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same room as him.
The Only Way is Essex star Dan Osborne asked Big Brother for clarity on the situation, to which they replied: "Dan, it’s perhaps worth thinking about why Ryan has not been removed from the house." He then tried to ask Roxanne about the situation, saying: "What you’re accusing him of doing… is a career-stopping thing for him. It would ruin him. Do you honestly believe he would do that on purpose?" She replied: "I think he would be very stupid to do it in a house full of surveillance."
Ryan was clearly deeply distressed by the situation, telling the other housemates that they would be "heartbroken" if it was them, adding: "I don’t know what she’s doing to me." Crying in the diary room, he said: "I’ve done nothing, I’ve done nothing." The situation received over 25,000 complaints to Ofcom.
After hearing crowds chant "Get Roxie out" during an eviction, Roxanne voluntarily left the reality show. She later apologised in an interview with the show’s host, Emma Willis, where she said she had made a "horrible mistake".
She said: "My mind ran away with me. I am a sensitive person my friends and family can vouch for that… In the house, everything becomes heightened. Your insecurities are heightened. All I can say I can explain it in the moment it felt worse than it was."
Speaking about the incident one year later, Roxanne appeared on The Jeremy Vine Show, saying: "I chose to go on that show, I put myself out there and I made a mistake. I understand why everyone felt the way they did. When I watched it back, I would have felt the same way. I was on the wrong path, I was a person I don’t even like, so I don’t blame anyone for saying what they felt."
Adam later said that he forgave her for the situation, saying: "If she wants forgiveness and it makes her feel better then I would rather give her that, because I think she's been punished enough by the public and people around her."
Ryan recently reflected on that time in his life with his brother Scott on the Mancs on the Mic podcast. Scott explained: “I remember watching at home, and I remember like it was yesterday, I even remember the exact video where you just went up to her and you gave her a little play punch, like, in the air and we're all watching at home, as the audience, knowing exactly what's happened, that you never even touched her. So obviously we know straight away from the nation's perspective that we're on your side, but obviously being in there, she was making out to the rest of the contestants that you would physically hurt her.”
Ryan revealed that the fellow housemates avoided him after the incident, making him feel left out. He said: "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 started to question ‘did I do something wrong?’ because it was that intense in that environment… It's so weird I get emotional about it now because it's over.”
Addressing his feelings towards Roxanne, he added: "“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.”
Where is Roxanne Pallett now?
Roxanne has since very much moved on from the incident, and no longer appears in the public spotlight. She married her partner, firefighter Nick Jason Carrion - who also appeared on Married at First Sight - in a New York-based ceremony back in 2020. At the time, she said: "I’m living proof that you can find a happily ever after beyond tough times. To walk down the aisle in such a perfect fairy-tale setting towards my dream man, was the happiest moment of my life. I’m still floating on a cloud."
In June 2021, she announced that she was expecting her first child, telling the Sunday Mirror: "I now know what ‘happy ever after’ feels like… To have such a beautiful life here and be blessed with the most incredible husband and our little baba on the way… my mum’s already knitting for England." The pair have kept the birth of their child private, though confirmed during Roxanne’s pregnancy that they planned to name him 'Maverick'. The former actress is now living privately and has also deleted all social media accounts.