ITV has issued a statement after new Big Brother contestant Charlotte Nott experienced an unfortunate mishap on her way into the house.
During Sunday night’s launch show, viewers were introduced to the student for the first time, during which she opened up about being a quadruple amputee in a VT package.
“When I was three years old, I lost my hands and feet to meningitis,” she explained. “People stare at me, people even take pictures of me. And I forget! I’ll be out and I’ll be thinking, ‘I must be looking quite nice today’, and then I remember, ‘it’s because I’ve actually got no limbs, that’s why’.”
She then claimed to “hate woke people”, before correcting herself, saying: “I don’t hate woke people – I love everybody! But the world is not made for people like me, and it’s just too bad! That’s what I think!”
The 18-year-old was then filmed getting out of her car and making her way into the house, but before she made it to the stairs, she was seen struggling with her shoes, at which point host Will Best ran over to help.
Vianney Le Caer/Shutterstock for Big Brother
As Will and Charlotte attempted to continue on the stairs, she was heard saying that she needed to “take off” her prosthetic legs, with the cameras panning away from the scene.
When Charlotte was next seen, she was being interviewed by Will and his co-host AJ Odudu without her prosthetics, raising questions about the house’s accessibility among many viewers.
“My shoe came off – I’m so sorry, I had to take my legs off!” she told the pair, with AJ insisting she had “nothing to apologise for”.
ITV has since told HuffPost UK: “Prior to Charlotte’s entrance to the House, we worked closely with her and a specialist access co-ordinator to understand her access requirements and agree, with her, the arrangements for her entrance and time in the House.
“A plan was put in place based on those discussions and agreed with Charlotte; however, she had an unforeseen issue with her shoe.”
It was also noted that Charlotte had been offered the use of a ramp to make her entrance, but turned it down in favour of stairs, and rehearsed her entrance with Will before the show went live.
Numerous tweaks were made to the Big Brother house to accommodate Charlotte and make it more accessible, in collaboration with the show’s specialist access co-ordinator.
HuffPost UK has contacted ITV for additional comment.
Upon entering the Big Brother residence, she told her new housemates that the heel of her shoe had broken, which led to her taking off her leg prosthetics completely.
Charlotte is one of 16 new housemates currently living under Big Brother’s watchful eye.
At the end of Sunday’s final, the group were informed that one of them was a mole specifically put in the house to ruffle feathers and cause “chaos”.
Big Brother airs nightly on ITV2 and ITVX.