Emily: 'I've had death threats since leaving the Big Brother house'

The 19 year-old from Bristol who was evicted after she used the racist word n**** to black housemate Charley, said she had received two death threats on her MySpace page - one which said "I'm going to hunt you down girl".

Emily, who has been in hiding in a hotel, or holed up in her home in Bristol, told Heat magazine, the negative publicity surrounding her shock ejection from the house has left her afraid to go out in public.

She told Heat: "I'm nervous about going outside right now. It's just about making that step."

Although she has been supported by her family since leaving the house, her mother Mandy admitted she was "angry with her for using that word."

Mandy added:"I've never heard anyone in my family speak like that. Her sisters are furious. But I've done my angry bit, I have to support her now."

Channel 4 bosses, desperate to shake off the controversy caused by their catastrophic mishandling of the Shilpa Shetty racism furore on the celebrity version of the show earlier this year, acted swiftly to avoid criticism, ejecting Emily just seven hours after the issue came to light.

In her defence, Emily offered that she had used the word "as a term of affection". She explained: "Me and Charley were good friends in the house.

"I know it offended people, but it's a term used rather loosely among my friends - black and white."

When asked if she would consider using the word again Emily said she would "be more careful".

She said: "For me, this whole thing has been a learning curve. I was ignorant not to think about what I was saying."

After she left the Diary Room in just her nightie and famously no underwear, Emily was met in the corridor by three of the show's executive producers in the early hours of the morning.

She was bundled into a van under a duvet cover and driven to a hotel where she was met by mum and sister Jessica. Her sister Alice was having an exam that day.

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At the time she said she was in a state of "complete and utter devastation" about being kicked off the show she endured six months of auditions to get onto.

She said:"I broke down in tears constantly - pretty much non-stop for the first two days. First it was shock and devastation, then because I'd let my family down."

Following her exit from the house, Emily has faced accusations of prior racist behaviour from former friends.

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Former college student Gloria Assibey claimed Emily pushed in front of a black classmate in a queue and said: "Whites first, you b*****".

But Emily denied the claim and said: "When I read that, one of the first people I called was my tutor Steve - who also taught Gloria for a year - and he said, 'I'm so sorry, Emily. Don't listen to it. If you want me to stand up in court and prove she's lying, I will."

And she dismissed the uncle who called her behaviour 'disgusting' as someone her family "hasn't seen in years...Don't even know where he lives."

But having faced the music on Big Brother spin-off show Big Brother's Little Brother with Dermot O' Leary, Emily knows that she still has some way to go before things return to normal.

She said:"There's still a big cloud hanging over my head...I just want some better weather to come along.

"I'll always be gutted by what happened. There's no amount of words that can cover how sorry I am."