Big Brother fans demand housemate removed after inappropriate kissing joke

Big Brother 2024 hasn’t been on our screens for a week, and viewers are already rallying for one housemate to be removed following shocking scenes on Friday night.

Fans were furious after Marcello, a 34-year-old young mentor, told a blatant lie following an interaction with Ali, a 38-year-old forensic psychologist, claiming they shared an intimate moment away from the group.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, however, with Ali, who has a girlfriend, having spoken openly about coming out as a lesbian later in life, visibly uncomfortable as Marcello continued to promote the joke.

The drama began when Marcello and Ali went to the smoking area in last night’s episode, the night before the series’ first eviction.

Normally the smoking area is not shown to viewers, hence the questionable angle and dodgy footage, but ITV made an exception in this scenario to provide full context for what happened.

‘Want to try it?’, Marcello asked Ali, handing him his vape.

After she took a drag and he tried hers, Marcello commented, “We just kissed,” to which Ali giggled and told him, “It’s not a thing!”

“I’m kidding,” he told her, before telling several other housemates outside the smoking area, “We just kissed, didn’t we?”

‘No, we didn’t do that,’ Ali stated, to which Marcello laughed: ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We don’t kiss; I am joking.’

Minutes later, Ali recalled what happened in conversation with Khaled, telling him: ‘In the garden, he said we kissed.

‘And I’m like… he knows I have a girlfriend.’

“As long as he says, “I know she has a girlfriend,” it’s fine,” Ali added, but his facial expression remained unamused.

Later, after the clock reached 1am, Marcello joined Ali, Segun and Thomas in the kitchen and was greeted by an awkward silence.

Ali then impersonated Marcello’s previous comments, making him laugh before reminding him: “I have people watching.”

He reached out to shake her hand, assuring her that he was a “gentleman” behind the foolishness.

‘You’re trying to ruin my life,’ Ali scowled, to which Marcello exclaimed: ‘You entered the smoking room! You knew what you were doing.

Ali scolded Marcello for continuing the joke, refusing to hug him before leaving.

As the cameras cut to hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best on the live stage before announcing the first person evicted, the two hosts simply ignored Marcello’s comments, saying that a vape kiss is “not a thing.”

It wasn’t long before viewers began writing angry posts on social media about what happened, also expressing fury at the way the issue was apparently dismissed by the presenters.

‘Marcello literally PREYING Ali like this is so vile I need him out of that house NOW,’ fumed user X txbamxnmicxh_s.

‘Ali is clearly uncomfortable around Marcello, and I need this man to disappear. He’s literally a sex pest, and the producers can clearly see a problem with how he acts based on the fact that they show us the harsh footage of the smoking area, to validate Ali not doing anything wrong,” MiichaelKing argued.

Marcello made repeated sexualized comments to other housemates throughout the week, including repeated excessive praise for Rosie.

AJ, Will and the panelists on spin-off show Late & Live also failed to see the problem with what happened, arguing ‘that’s just Marcello’, while house guest David Potts suggested it ‘wasn’t that deep’.

AlfieS12 then posted: ‘AJ, Will and literally everyone in the studio couldn’t address the fact that the Marcello/Ali thing happened in the one room in the house we’ve never seen on TV before, nor expected to see. As if you can’t understand what Ali means by that.

‘No, I’m sorry but this is ALSO a dangerous conversation on Late & Live, you can’t excuse Marcello’s behavior by saying ‘that’s just Marcello’ and Ali needs to ‘chill out’. I expected better from Will, but this was shameful,’ agreed AshGarrod.

Echoing what thousands of others have said, ohnocleoo wrote: ‘Begging us to get Marcello out of there. claiming that he kissed her all knowing that she is a lesbian and has a girlfriend, he is really vile and it is bordering on fetishism now. no respect for her or her relationship and this seems to be a topic that men don’t take seriously in their relationships’.

Countless other viewers were shocked at how Marcello’s behavior in the house was allowed to ‘escalate’, implying it could be a ‘matter of days’ before bosses intervene.

Meanwhile, Ali has proven to be a real hit with viewers and is already one of the favorites to collect the £100,000 prize at the end of the series.

She has spoken to her housemates several times about her sexuality, saying before launch night that she is “unabashedly an older lesbian”.

Living in Leicester, she has been dating her current girlfriend for five months.

Big Brother airs Sunday to Friday at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

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