OWIE!
Towie star Gemma Collins reveals she plans to sue the BBC after THAT terrifying fall at Radio 1 Teen Awards which made her think she might die
TOWIE star Gemma Collins is to sue the BBC after claiming she could have been killed when she fell through a trap door at Radio 1’s Teen Awards.
Sunday’s accident, which has now gone viral around the world, left her bruised and nursing a bad back.
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Gemma, 36, said she feared being crushed by a hydraulic platform that was raising Love Island stars
Amber Davies, Jamie Jewitt and Marcel Somerville on to the stage at London’s SSE Arena.
In an exclusive interview, she told The Sun: “I’m in total shock. It is a miracle I am living to tell the tale.
“I could have died or at least been disabled at the end of it. I could have been legless. Legless!
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“I’m not being funny, I didn’t even get a tenner for turning up. I didn’t even know there was a hole there.
“To be honest when it happened I didn’t know where I was, what day of the week it was. No joke, my life did flash before my eyes. I thought I was dead.
“People couldn’t see it, but underneath the stage there’s a lot of machinery and the Love Island people were coming up on a platform.
“When I actually went down into the pit, they were screaming, ‘Get her up because her legs are going to get crushed, her legs are going to get crushed’.
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“If it wasn’t for the two Love Island guys — they had super strength. The video didn’t really show it, they pulled me up.
LOOKING COSY Gemma Collins pictured partying with jailbird ex-Stephen Mortimer after his release from prison
“I felt so sorry for Marcel because he obviously took my weight. I went straight on to him. The little girl got knocked down.”
She went on: “I’ve got to consult a lawyer, yeah. The BBC, they’ve not been in touch with any compensation or anything — or even an apology.
“It’s very important this gets sorted out because really you know what it is — it’s negligence.
“Do you know what I find shocking? The BBC hasn’t sent any flowers. Nothing.
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“I am overwhelmed by everyone’s support but if we just take a minute and watch that clip back it could have been the end of The GC. I can’t back down from it.”
Gemma, now a dress designer, was presenting an award at the bash, attended by 10,000 fans and hosted by Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw.
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But she insisted she was not properly briefed before being ushered on to the stage by a female floor manager.
Gemma said: “She went, ‘Right I’m going to take you up on the stage now Gemma and tell you where to stand.’
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“You can see her in the video pointing to the bit. She says, ‘Just stand there — there’s your mark.’
“Not at one point did she say, ‘If you move to the right you are going to fall.’
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“She didn’t even tell me they were coming up from below. She just said, ‘The guys are gonna walk onstage Gem, you need to present them with the award’. Afterwards she had tears in her eyes, I’ll never forget it, and she just went, ‘If you tell anyone I didn’t tell you to not move off your mark I’m going to get the sack and lose my job, I’m in the firing line.’
“How can I do that to someone right on top of Christmas?”
Gemma said BBC staff failed to care for her following the drama.
She said: “They didn’t sit me down. They didn’t even offer me a chair or get me water. Honestly, it’s so bad. They did nothing, they just ushered me through to the next segment.”
Gemma has been left badly bruised and her doctor has advised her that her injuries are likely to become more severe over the next couple of days. She said: “It’s the left side of my body that is coming out now with the bruising because I smacked down on to whatever material they had used for that raised platform.
Gemma Collins lets fans know that she's alright after falling through the stage at the Radio One Teen Awards
“Literally my back on the lower left side is throbbing. Like, you know, it’s all starting to come up now.”
Her mum Joan has also been left devastated.
Gemma said: “She’s been crying her eyes out.
“I’m like, ‘Mum please pull yourself together.’
“She went, ‘Look, it’s all well having a laugh and a joke about it. But if you watch the video back, Gemma, you could have broken your back. Anything could have happened.’”
Gemma believes one good thing to come from the accident is that it shows she is no longer a quitter, after walking out of I’m A Celebrity in 2014.
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She said: “The public didn’t know what happened to me in the Jungle.
“I think they can see from yesterday that I went with a massive crash and tumble and still got up and finished my job.
“I didn’t go crying off the stage and, like, demand to be wafted down with a thousand lilies.
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“As much as people call me a diva, at the end of the day I was very professional and I have to do my gig.
“Realistically do you think I wanted to do all them things with Rita Ora and Grimmy when I’ve just fallen off the stage and nearly killed myself?
“I’ve got back up so quick that no one really had time to digest it. They were just like, ‘Was it a gag or was it real?’
“Well it was real and I’m lucky to be alive to tell the tale.”
Last night a spokeswoman for Radio 1 told The Sun: “The BBC takes the health and safety of everyone involved very seriously and we are awaiting a full report from Remedy, the production company who made the show, about the incident, but they have told us that Gemma did receive a full briefing before going on stage.”
Tantrums and tears
GEMMA’S most memorable TV moments include stripping to her swimsuit at a TOWIE pool party in Marbella to tell her ex: “Take a good look — you ain’t ever gonna get this candy.”
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Gemma lasted just three days of meltdowns on 2014’s I’m A Celebrity before quitting.
And there were more tantrums in last year’s Celebrity Big Brother. At one point she refused to leave her bed, sobbing: “I can’t play any more games. I’m gamed out. It’s like having a job, working 24/7.”
Women in the wars
THE plunge is just the latest in a list of TV accidents.
Actress Kimberley Daviesn hurt her shoulder falling from a helicopter on I’m A Celebrity in 2005. And last year gymnast Beth Tweddle was left in a neck brace after a tumble on The Jump.
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