Jade denies being suicidal over racism row

His career was on the line as the channel's board met for the first time to discuss the Big Brother crisis and calls mounted for him to leave.

Today Goody, 25, denied reports that she has been suicidal since realising the scale of public revulsion over her bullying of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

The mother of two was "inconsolable" after being evicted from the reality show house last week.

She said she was worried her two young sons would be "rejected" as a consequence of her actions but said she would never harm herself because of them.

Goody told GMTV she did not realise how "nasty and ugly" her behaviour was until she watched footage of herself shouting and screaming at Shetty.

She insisted she would have argued with everyone in the house in the same aggressive manner, no matter what the colour of their skin, and added that she was sorry for the Bollywood star's parents having to watch her suffer.

Goody said: "My actions and my words were wrong. They are not justified, I won't justify them.

"I didn't realise how nasty and ugly that was until I watched it. I am upset that I let myself get like that. I never knew I argued like that, I didn't know I looked as ugly and aggressive as that.

"I argue like that with everybody. It wasn't just because of the colour of her skin that I was that aggressive," she said. She added that even when tensions between the pair reached boiling point, the worst Shilpa had said was "shut up".

Mr Duncan was expected to face questions over his refusal to apologise for the row. Board members are also said to be angry that he and other Channel 4 bosses kept silent for so long, only commenting after Carphone Warehouse withdrew its sponsorship.

MPs and race leaders have demanded Mr Duncan's resignation along with that of Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson.

The future of the show will also be discussed by the board but it is said to be reluctant to make a " kneejerk" reaction and is not expected to make a decision on whether to axe Big Brother today. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said Mr Johnson should be held to account and the channel forced to give up the millions it has made from the show.

Channel 4 sources today revealed that there had been "several offers" from companies hoping to replace Carphone Warehouse as a sponsor of the show but that the channel had decided not to sign any new contracts.