Actor and former boxer Mickey Rourke was given a formal warning for making homophobic comments to gay pop star JoJo Siwa on an episode of the reality TV series Celebrity Big Brother UK – but Siwa’s partner made sure to have the last word, calling Rourke a “f**king weasel of a man” who is not safe to be around.
After Rourke, 72, asked Siwa, 21, whether she was attracted to boys or girls, Siwa responded girls but clarified that her partner is nonbinary.
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“I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history, and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong,” she joked.
“If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore,” Rourke replied.
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“I can guarantee I’ll still be gay and I’ll still be in a very happy relationship,” Siwa quipped back.
Rourke replied that he’d tie her up.
Siwa also heard Rourke telling his series housemate Chris Hughes, “I’m going to vote the lesbian out real quick.”
“That’s homophobic, if that was your reasoning,” Siwa replied.
But Rourke kept going. “I need a f*g,” he said, telling Siwa, “I’m not talking to you.” When Hughes called him out for using the anti-gay slur, he said, “I know. I was talking about a cigarette.” The exchange brought Siwa to tears.
In the Diary Room, a spot in the house where the contestants speak to “Big Brother,” Rourke was reprimanded for his actions.
“Mickey, do you understand how this language could be offensive to your housemates or the viewing public?” Big Brother asked.
“Yeah I think so. If I was saying it in a nasty kind of way or if I truly meant it,” Rourke replied.
“As a result, Big Brother is giving you a formal warning. Further language or behavior of this nature could lead to you being removed from the Big Brother house.”
Rourke responded, “I apologize. I don’t have dishonorable intentions – I’m just talking smack you know. I wasn’t taking it all so serious. I didn’t mean it in any bad intentions and if I did, sorry.”
Afterward, Rourke apologized directly to Siwa, telling her he “didn’t say it out of meanness.”
“I want to apologize. I’ve got a habit of having a short fuse. And I don’t mean nothing by it. I do mean it [the apology]. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t say it to you.”
Siwa replied, “I appreciate your apology.”
Siwa’s partner, Kath Ebbs, was furious at Rourke’s treatment of Siwa. On Instagram, they called it “beyond disgusting.”
“It’s literally taken me many hours to even process what the f**k I just watched,” they said. “Not only because that is the literal love of my life and I want to protect her at all costs, and I feel so helpless that I cannot be there to not only comfort her but to also lose it at that f**king weasel of a man but secondly take the fact out that I have massive emotional stakes in the comments towards her.”
They slammed Rourke’s attitude as being “rooted in misogyny and f**king violence” and also criticized the fact that Hughes was the only member of the house to defend Siwa. Ebbs also pointed out that Rourke has previously been charged with domestic violence and slammed the series for casting him at all. “Seems like they were looking for this viral moment,” they said.
Ebbs also expressed particular disgust at the moment Rourke joked he would tie Siwa up to turn her straight. “That is a rape joke,” they said. “That’s what that is, call it what it is.”
“She shuts him down over and over again. He then goes, actually I’m going to get rid of you. Which is rooted in misogyny.”
“If men deem you unf**kable they have no use for you,” they said.
They continued, “If the male gaze is not a part of this situation and I have no power over you sexually – which also, no offense Mickey, you look like a f**king foot, so you don’t stand a chance with anyone anyway, because you’re a f**cking loser – then he’s like oh, well then, I’m going to bully you. If you are not going to play into my creepy jokes, okay then I’m going to bully you and say I don’t want you here.”
They also urge Rourke to consider whether he’d let a woman he cared about be alone in a room with someone like him.
“There are so many f**king layers to that interaction. It makes me feel sick to my stomach.”
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