Davina finally speaks out over racism row

The TV host, who will bow out after this summer's Big Brother series, had to be neutral when she interviewed the housemates about their disgraceful bullying of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty because of a police investigation.

But the 39-year-old mother of three has broken her silence now to brand the trio's behaviour "appalling".

Davina said: "Jade behaved appallingly, as did Jo and Danielle Lloyd, and there was bullying."

Davina faced criticism for allegedly giving the bullies as easy ride during the eviction interviews.

She added: "The Big Brother house is no stranger to bullying tactics but it was always worked through in the end and some sort of justice is usually done. I don't think Jo did herself any favours in the interview.

"Legally, at that time, I was not allowed to have an opinion as to whether or not she was racist - she hadn't necessarily said extremely racist things. It was her collusion with Jade that had got her into trouble, really horrible stuff."

"But I couldn't sit there and say that's racist, because I would be judging and prosecuting her. I think it was just real bitchy naivety on their parts. They were silly, bitchy girls. I think girls have a tendency to be like that."

Davina has been the face of BB since it started in 2000, but will quit the Channel 4 reality show after the current series.

At the time, she said she was worried about getting pigeonholed and wanted to move on to other television projects.

Davina might be picking a shrewd time to leave the Big Brother fold.

The future of the series was thrown into turmoil because of the racism allegations, and Channel 4 was forced to make a grovelling apology over the incident before the current series began last week.

Perhaps BB's number is finally up.

Come back for daily Big Brother new, gossip and pictures