Following her victory on 'Celebrity Big Brother', actress Shilpa Shetty has appealed to the British public to forgive the three housemates who were accused of racist bullying towards her.
Speaking to the press after her win with 63% of the public vote, Shetty said of Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara: "They are young, but not racist."
During the press conference Lloyd appeared in the room to ask for Shetty's forgiveness.
The 23-year-old model said: "I would like to apologise for the words I have said, they were not meant to be racist, I am not racist."
Her apology was accepted by a tearful Shetty.
The 31-year-old actress said she had just seen the footage for the first time of what had happened to her in the 'Celebrity Big Brother' house and described it as "ghastly".
She continued: "But now I just want to move forward in life. Jade Goody is not a bad person. She is just young - people are fallible. She is a mother of two and I do not want to see her ruined because of this. It was just a game, we played that game and now it is over."
Shetty's career in the UK is set to be handled by PR specialist Max Clifford, who said that Shetty had "a great deal of offers already on the table".
He said of Shetty: "I think she handled herself excellently while she was in the house. By forgiving her fellow housemates and talking about how she thinks their comments were based on ignorance rather than racism she has taken a huge step."
