Celebrity Big Brother former housemate says Late & Live experience is ‘tortuous’ in Ekin-Su support

Lauren Simon has offered support to her fellow Celebrity Big Brother evictee Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu after she faced a mixed reception upon her exit from the show.

The former Love Island champion was eliminated from the competition on Friday (15 March) after a public vote.

Straight after her eviction, Cülcüloğlu featured on the companion programme, Celebrity Big Brother Late & Live, on which she was grilled about her time in the house by presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best, and clashed with Bad Education and Strictly star Layton Williams.

Although evictees tend to return to the aftershow in the days after their exit from the main show, Cülcüloğlu has not made another appearance on screen.

Reflecting on her own experience immediately after exiting the CBB house, The Real Housewives of Cheshire star Simon shared some sympathetic words with the Turkish soap star, and claimed she had a similarly difficult time when she was the second person voted out.

“I also had an interesting experience at Late & Live, and I felt that when you’ve just come out of the house and you’re so nervous, sitting there is the most horrific thing,” she told Metro on Wednesday (20 March).

“We sat there for two hours and it’s so torturous, and you’ve got all these different emotions because half of you wants to go home and the other half thinks you’re letting yourself down because you’ve been voted out.

“And also the booing, the public coming out, we didn’t know what we were coming out to, it was so scary.”

Simon then spoke about the pressure of having to answer questions from the hosts, as well as the guest panellists and studio audience.

She noted: “And to come out, and have the questions thrown at you like that, I had it and it was so horrible. It’s not right, it’s wrong.

“I think they were quite forceful with myself and with her, which is why I didn’t go back to Late & Live either, in fairness.”

During Cülcüloğlu’s time on Late & Live, she was about her reasoning for nominating Louis Walsh, who she’d named as one of her closest companions in the house. She was also questioned about her treatment of West End star Marisha Wallace by Layton Williams, who told her not to “blame the edit” she received before getting a chance to see it herself.

The interview, which has been widely shared online, has been branded “awkward” and “painful”.

Celebrity Big Brother airs nightly on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm, and concludes on Friday 22 March.