Celebrity Big Brother host explains Stormy Daniels' departure / Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side
She has already proved to be a thorn in the side of the most powerful man in the world.
So when former porn star Stormy Daniels headed across the Atlantic to make her mark on British television, programme makers should have known they were in for a torrid time.
Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal the extraordinary chain of events that led to Stormy living up to her name and walking off the set of Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother before also failing to appear on ITV's Loose Women, reports Daily Mail.
The MoS has learned that Ms Daniels screamed at Celebrity Big Brother executives, "I would rather set myself on f****** fire than do your f****** show" just two hours before the series was due to be launched on Thursday evening.
Ms Daniels was reportedly being paid £500,000 ($961,000) to appear on the show but she was furious that producers had prepared a special White House set, in which she was to be the "President", and that broadcasts were even going to feature a Mexican-US border wall.
Sources report that Ms Daniels was enraged that her controversial claims that she slept with US President Donald Trump were to dominate the series. But if producers hoped to win her over, things went from bad to worse.
Ms Daniels, 39, who had only landed in London from Los Angeles that morning, threw another tantrum when staff rifled through her underwear in the suitcase she was due to take into the house, to make sure she wasn't taking in any banned items.
And to round off the disastrous chain of events, staff at Elstree's The Village hotel, just a mile from the Big Brother house, were shocked when they witnessed Miss Daniels's fury for themselves – this time because chips she had ordered to her room hadn't arrived.
One waitress at the hotel where the contestants were staying said: "I heard that Stormy threw a huge tantrum because her chips weren't delivered. Someone must have forgotten to put the order through.
Donald Trump has denied either having a relationship with Ms Daniels or paying her off. Photo / AP
"The next thing we knew was that she had left and not gone into the Celebrity Big Brother house."
A source close to the show said last night: "We have seen some meltdowns before but never anything on this scale.
"Literally everything had been built around Stormy. She was the 'get' of the series and as such the props were built at great expense, but she didn't like that.
"The fact is that she has been negotiating this appearance for months and now everything is having to be rewritten.
"This has caused nothing less than a nightmare and it has cost Channel 5 a fortune."
Ms Daniels had negotiated her £500,000 deal – the highest Celebrity Big Brother fee ever – to star for just one week of the series. Now Channel 5 is considering legal action to recover some of its costs.
It has been suggested that child custody issues were to blame for Ms Daniels's shock withdrawal. But the show source added: "There was no talk of custody battles until the very last minute before we went live. It has been going on for weeks, so if it was so significant why did she get on the plane?
"Her tantrums really were something else, extraordinary."
On Friday morning, Ms Daniels left Channel 5 furious once again when she booked herself to star on ITV's Loose Women to explain it was indeed a custody battle over one of her children that had prevented her from taking part on Celebrity Big Brother.
Jane Moore, the Loose Women panellist who met Miss Daniels before the programme, said: "All she wants to say is there was a custody development – she showed me the official email proving that – and she suddenly thought, 'I've got this situation, I can't commit'. She said, 'Being a mother comes first.'"
However, after learning of her appearance, Channel 5's lawyers contacted ITV staff to warn them they would be in breach of visa restrictions because they had sponsored her to work in the UK for them and nobody else, and her appearance was cancelled.
It is understood Ms Daniels is now staying in a hotel on the outskirts of London until she flies home to the United States.
Mr Trump has denied either having a relationship with Ms Daniels or paying her off.
