Lorraine says Ekin-Su ‘did not pull out of show’ at last minute

Lorraine has apologised for causing confusion when it was announced that Celebrity Big Brother star Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu had pulled out of appearing on the daytime programme.

On Monday’s show (18 March), Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls declared Cülcüloğlu would be on Lorraine on Monday morning (18 March). But when they panned over to host Lorraine Kelly, she said the Love Island star might be a no-show.

Reid reportedly asked her: “We thought you might have Ekin-Su on,” to which Kelly replied: “So did I... but alas no. I don’t know, we’re trying to find out. She was due to come in right, but no.”

Lorraine has now issued an apology statement on the show’s official Instagram page, clarifying: “We’d like to clear up a misunderstanding, Ekin-Su did not pull out of the show or throw the programme into chaos this morning.

“We’d love to welcome her back on the programme soon. We apologise for the confusion.”

The news comes as Cülcüloğlu clashed with Big Brother Late & Live hosts and panellists in a debate after she was evicted from the CBB house on Friday (15 March).

During the Late & Live episode, the reality star, 29, was accused of attempting to “blame the edit” for her portrayal in the main show, in light of an explosive argument that took place between herself and West End star Marisha Wallace during Thursday’s instalment.

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Cülcüloğlu was upset with Wallace, who had picked her during the face-to-face nominations, and accused people of being “fake” towards her.

After she was evicted from the house, Cülcüloğlu appeared on Late & Live when she was quizzed on how she handled the situation.

Cülcüloğlu told the room that they hadn’t seen it all, and that some moments had been cut out in the edit.

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“You haven’t seen everything, they cut stuff out,” she said, to which panellist Layton Williams replied: “You’re not going to blame it on the edit. One thing you’re not going to do is blame it on the edit, girl. We see what we see and it’s a shame.”

Cülcüloğlu later shared: “I’m just hurt that I wasn’t portrayed as myself on the show”.

Host AJ Odudu cut in and remarked that Cülcüloğlu had only just left the Big Brother house, so had not yet seen the edit of the episode.

“It’s interesting because you have literally just walked out of the house,” Odudu said. “You don’t know what’s been seen or what’s been said, but I can assure you that everything that has been seen and has been said has been said by you.”

Addressing her fans in a post-episode interview shared on Celebrity Big Brother’s social channels, Cülcüloğlu hinted at the backlash she faced after leaving the house while sharing a message of thanks to those who saw her “genuine side”.

She said: “All I want to say is for those who saw me for me and [have] seen through me for my genuine side, thank you so much for following me and supporting me and being there for me and understanding where I was coming from – it means so much.”

Celebrity Big Brother airs nightly on ITV1 at 9pm.