I'm horrified to see bullying - but it wasn't racist

The tearful Big Brother winner said she was "deeply hurt" and added: "I can understand why people complained so much. It isn't just one or two attacks - it's incessant."

But she also pleaded for the public to forgive Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd, whose behaviour she branded "jealous" and "stupid" but not racist.

She said: "When I go back to India, I will make a public appeal for them to forgive her."

The Bollywood actress, 31, was shown footage of the sniping behind her back - including demands for her to "f*** off home".

She said: "I didn't know all that had gone on. Why didn't someone stop them?"

On Goody's tirade against her - sparked by a row over an Oxo cube - she said: "This is so petty, so juvenile, so nasty. Jade's behaviour is obnoxious, very aggressive, nasty and suffocating.

"I'm sorry my family and their families had to see this. My mum said she was worried I was going to be attacked - and now I can see why. I really don't know why I was singled out for such hatred."

On Lloyd's comment that "she can't even speak English properly", she said: "I speak 10 languages and I think my English is fantastic."

She added: "I can see why people felt they had to stick up for me and I'm grateful."

While insisting she was "not for a minute" excusing her housemates' actions, she said Goody and O'Meara had acted out of jealousy, while Lloyd was vulnerable and naive.

"It was not a battle between brown and white. It was a battle between right and wrong. And right won.... It wasn't contrived to be racist. I don't want to perceive it that way."

She told the Mirror: "I forgive them because I must. We are all human beings, we all make mistakes.

"But I must say I think I did pretty well. I didn't demean myself by using horrible language like the others - there is no need to in the country that brought us William Shakespeare."

Her comments came today as Lloyd claimed Big Brother bosses had "gagged" her.

The former Miss Great Britain, 23, said: "There is a lot which hasn't been shown. I have been branded a racist and it's not fair - if people knew the whole picture they'd have a different view."

She said she had told the diary room that she had not found the Jade row funny and had been too scared to intervene - but those comments were never aired.

Goody has been admitted into the Priory suffering from "stress and depression" after collapsing at home.