Australian Big Brother contestant unaware of father's death

A contestant on the Australian TV version of Big Brother is blissfully unaware that her father has died and was buried this week, the producer has said.

Personal trainer Emma Cornell, aged 24, is competing in the fly on-the-wall reality TV programme that began a month ago in which contestants are kept isolated from events happening outside a purpose-built house on the Gold Coast, in Queensland state.



Her father, Raymond Cornell, died of cancer in a hospice on Wednesday last week, aged 53, and was buried in the southern city of Adelaide on Monday, a spokesman for the programme’s producer, Endemol Southern Star, confirmed.

“We’re abiding by her family’s wishes in not informing her”, said the spokesman.