Davina McCall has insisted that Brian Dowling was invited to be a part of Big Brother’s anniversary show.
Davina was joined by Rylan Clark-Neal for special series Big Brother: Best Shows Ever on E4 over the past two weeks.
The pair were joined by Dermot O’Leary and Emma Willis as well as a number of former housemates.
However Brian – who won both Big Brother and Ultimate Big Brother before hosting the show for two years – wasn’t a part of the celebrations.
Taking to Twitter after the final episode aired, Davina assured fans that Brian was invited to appear.
“Just an FYI . We did ask @brianofficial to be part of the show. He was ultimate housemate!!!! That was a no brainer,” she wrote.
Brian then replied to Davina explaining why he declined to take part.
He wrote: “I found out from The Sun newspaper that I was being fired and replaced, and it took the production company a further 4 weeks to confirm that, without a single apology, phone call, text, email or even a bunch of flowers or a single question asking how I was.
“My whole time on the show was tainted by how I was treated and it still affects me today.
“The same production company asked if I wanted to film a 10 second message on my phone saying hello to you and Rylan. Surprisingly I didn’t really feel like doing that.”
Brian still appeared in flashbacks on the special series, with Rylan opening up about how watching him as a teenager was “a bit of a moment for me.”
Rylan explained: “For me being 13, 14, thinking I was gay, knowing I was gay at that time, seeing someone like Brian who was an adult going through the same thing, it was a bit of a moment for me.
“Oh, it’s alright for him. Maybe being gay isn’t a bad thing. The amount of people who would say, ‘I don’t like gay people but he seems funny.’
“It’s things like that is the start of people changing their mind set.”
Big Brother’s Best Shows Ever is available to watch online via All 4.
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