JoJo Siwa’s mother, Jessalyn Siwa, has broken her silence after Mickey Rourke used a homophobic slur while speaking to her daughter in the Celebrity Big Brother UK house.
“I’m not surprised, honestly,” Jessalyn, 50, said in a Friday, April 11, Instagram video. “I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t go home. I knew he wouldn’t. I’m really sad, though, that I sent my kid — and she is my kid [because] I am her mom and she is my kid — to a foreign country to do a TV show and she got treated like that right away, right out of the gate.”
During an early episode of the latest season of Celebrity Big Brother UK, Rourke, 72, told Siwa, 21, that she “won’t be gay anymore” if she lasts more than four days in the house.
“I can guarantee I’ll still be gay,” the Dance Moms alum replied. “And I’ll still be in a very happy relationship [with Kath Ebbs].”
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Later on, Rourke used a homophobic slur while speaking with costar and Love Island UK alum Chris Hughes. At the time, he denied using the word to refer to Siwa.
“Mickey speaks from his heart and means well,” Rourke’s rep Kimberly Hines told Us Weekly in a statement. “He is old school, direct and honest. I have worked closely with him for nine years and he is 100 percent authentically himself. There will never be another Mickey Rourke. Period.”
Jessalyn, meanwhile, is proud of how her daughter dealt with the situation.
“I think she handled it great. I think that everyone’s told me she’s handled herself so well,” Jessalyn added. “Doesn’t make it OK [or] doesn’t make it right. I’m just lucky she can handle herself. I’m just lucky she is OK.”
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According to the momager, she’s been watching JoJo on the Big Brother live feeds throughout the season.
“I’ve been watching her in the rest of the scenes from the show, and I think she looks great,” Jessalyn said. “I think she looks like she’s doing what she always does. I mean, come on? It’s kind of become a culture. It’s become a game. It’s a trend to not like her, to hate her [and] make fun of her. … Now tell her ‘You’ll make her not a lesbian.’ What’s next? Why don’t you just take her for face value?”
Ebbs, 27, reposted Jessalyn’s message onto their Instagram Stories.
“Jo is one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever come to know, let alone had the privilege to call my partner,” Ebbs, who identifies as nonbinary, wrote. “We all witnessed misogyny play out on national TV these last two days. The support for her has been swift, which it should be.”
