A Big Brother contestant is facing backlash over comments criticised as "evil" regarding a fellow housemate’s Palestinian heritage.
Nathan King, a pork salesman and supporter of Nigel Farage, sparked anger among viewers by suggesting that model Khaled hasn’t shared enough about his experiences as a refugee.
During a task on Thursday’s episode, 24-year-old Nathan was asked: "Who do you think is holding back their true self?"
To which he replied: “I struggled with this one but I’m unfortunately going to go for Khaled.
“When we’re having a conversation, he maybe spends too long looking at the camera and not at the person sitting across from him.”
He added: “Khaled, I assume, will have a lot of opinions on things that are happening around the world that are maybe close to home for him but I thought he would be more vocal in his thoughts about it.
“When we spoke about politics and current affairs in the world in Israel or Lebanon, not everyone has to be an outspoken t**t like me and say what they’re thinking and that’s fine, but he’s holding back on his true self by not speaking about it because he’s thinking about the outside potentially.”
“This is a bit crazy, to say that I’m not supporting my people," Khaled responded from another room upon hearing Nathan's remarks.
Khaled, who has previously addressed his heritage, stated before entering the house: "I’m Lebanese and Palestinian and I thought this would be a great platform to discuss it from the point of view of someone that grew up in the west and has Middle Eastern heritage.”
The 23-year-old also mentioned that if he were to win the series, he would donate the prize money to Palestine and Lebanon.
Nathan faced significant backlash for his "absolutely insane" comments, with viewers expressing their frustration over his suggestion that Khaled hadn’t sufficiently discussed his culture and background.
One viewer wrote on X: “What Nathan just said about Khaled was absolutely insane??? What the actual f**k.”
“That is so f**king evil what Nathan has just said,” another commented online. A third shared: “Khaled is not sharing enough of his traumatic personal life experiences for Nathan’s liking???”
A fourth added: “Nathan is a truly weirdo? Policing a Palestinian man about how they talk about their own experiences is CRAZY.”
Later in the episode, Khaled and Nathan discussed the earlier comments, with Khaled telling King Charles’ former butler: “If you ever do want to talk about it, I’m more than happy to have that discussion, because from my point of view that was a serious accusation.
“That was the worst thing to say to someone that is Palestinian, very deep.”
He continued: “I’ve spoken about it, me and you have always kept to banter between us so it’s never gotten to that, you’ve never opened up to sensitive things to me.”
Nathan acknowledged: “Clearly, my wording wasn’t right,” to which Khaled responded graciously, saying he’d be happy to help Nathan understand the issue more deeply.
This follows an incident where Big Brother received complaints to Ofcom regarding a pro-Palestine T-shirt that was subsequently edited out of the episode by ITV.
Housemate Ali Bromley wore a “Wear The Peace” T-shirt in support of Palestine during the ongoing conflict, which has resulted in over 42,000 deaths in Gaza since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
The T-shirt featured a watermelon designed to resemble the contested territories of Israel and Palestine on a map. ITV later confirmed that the episode was altered to remove the image.
Big Brother continues at 9pm on ITV2
