Jo: I tried to die

Still maintaining that her racism and bullying was something that happened to her rather than being something she did, Jo O'Meara has been telling the News of the World that she apparently tried suicide:

She wept: "I wanted to kill myself. I'd had enough of that show and what it had done to me. I just couldn't carry on living.

"Channel 4 weren't there for me. They left me to die while they counted their pound notes and raved about ratings."

The tormented star revealed she:

# LOCKED herself away and refused to go out.

# FAILED in her suicide bid because a friend came home unexpectedly.

# BELIEVES she was too psychologically fragile to go on the show

# FEELS betrayed and abandoned by Big Brother bosses.

We're not quite sure how the "being locked away" squares with having "friends coming home". Rather aptly, the friend who interrupted her was called Cindy Lazarus.

Obviously, it's terrible that Jo feels such a mess, but part of her trouble seems to stem from her total inability to accept that her behaviour was bullying and racist - instead she maintains that things were "manipulated" and that she'd "come across" ina bad light:

Jo blames the editing of her conversations with Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd for making them look like bullies ganging up on Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty.

But this is just simply not true - the key incident, where Jade was honking at Shetty while O'Meara and Lloyd sat giggling in support, wasn't "edited" to make it look like the three were ganging up on Shetty. The ignorant pieces about touching food with hands, and being slim because they don't cook their food properly: yes, you could argue that the editing picked out the worst bits - but they didn't make them up in the edit.

Her tale is rammed full of contradictions:

"I was abandoned. I was simply chewed up and spat out by Channel 4. I remember when I left that house, and I was in floods of tears, they promised they'd take care of me.

"They know full well how much I've suffered in the last few weeks but they've done nothing for me.

That does, indeed, sound terrible. Except:

CBB makers Endemol sent a psychologist to visit her three days after her release. Furious Jo claimed: "He said I should never have gone on that show because I wasn't mentally stable enough."

So... Channel 4 have done nothing for you, but then where did this psychologist come from?

Channel 4, for their part, suggest they've tried to help:

A Channel 4 spokesman said last night: "A senior producer and the psychologist have maintained regular contact with Jo through her representatives. The psychologist has made additional offers of support which Jo has not yet taken up. Her fee is being processed."

Apparently forgetting that we've all seen the programme, Jo tried to suggest that a couple of weeks in the Big Brother house is on a par with Guantanamo:

"Some days they'd lock you in a room for hours to provoke reactions between people and then we'd be woken by sounds of babies crying, people vomiting or wailing animals. It was mental warfare.

"They control your lives like they are God. They knew we were vulnerable in there and shamelessly exploited it. I was put through the meat grinder and almost lost everything for this poxy show."

If only it had been on twice a year every year for the last half decade, you might have had some idea what you were letting yourself in for, eh?

We're stil a little puzzled as to how Jo has been unable to work and unable to go out, and yet has somehow managed to be together enough sell her story to the News of the World. Let's hope the payment saves her house.