Daley Thompson, 66, has found himself in the firing line with a select few members of the Celebrity Big Brother fandom yet again, following Thursday evening's nominations.
The former Olympian had already been accused of "transphobia" by cancel culture pariahs after old tweets of his supporting JK Rowling emerged, and these claims intensified further when he clashed with drag queen Danny Beard on opening night.
He's also faced criticism for being a vocal supporter of keeping women's sports exclusively open to biological females as the debate surrounding the inclusion of trans athletes in single-sex categories dominates global conversation.
The subsequent frenzy among some social media users has even led to calls for ITV to remove Thompson from the Big Brother house - although they've gone unheeded.
ITV CBB: Daley Thompson has come under fire for his nominations
ITV
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Following Thursday's show, in which Thompson nominated former Tory MP Michael Fabricant, 74, and pop singer JoJo Siwa, 21, for eviction, pro-LGBTQ+ social media users once again returned to online platforms to lodge baseless claims that he had an ulterior motive for the nominations.
Both Fabricant and Siwa have been open about their respective sexualities, with the former admitting he's bisexual and the latter being in a relationship with a non-binary partner.
After Thompson received immunity from the first eviction of the series, thanks to Mickey Rourke, the 66-year-old headed to the diary room to explain why he'd nominated the duo.
Fabricant was chosen by Thompson for being "too loud". Meanwhile, Siwa was nominated due to the fact the Olympian knew her "the least of all" compared to his fellow housemates.
ITV CBB: Daley Thompson patched things up with Danny Beard
ITV
While seemingly perfectly plausible explanations, Thompson's reasoning wasn't good enough for some viewers who accused him of "homophobia".
Taking to X following the nominations, one person wrote: "Daley nominates two LGBT housemates. Shocker… #CBBUK."
And a second agreed: "Pretends to be shocked that daley put 2 queer ppl up for nomination … even if one is a tory #CBBUK."
"Ofc daley voted for two queer ppl. cant wait for him to f***ing rot #CBBUK," a third nastily put before a fourth weighed in: "Can't get over the abysmal transphobic daley voting for the nation's princess jojo siwa, that man is rotten to the core #cbbuk."
The baseless claims were soon slapped down by several other Big Brother viewers, however, who jumped to the Olympian's defence - especially after he patched things up with drag queen Beard elsewhere in the show.
"People are so desperate to portray Daley a certain type of way for voting Jojo and Michael, yet he gets along fine with Danny almost as if (shocker) he gets on the least with the 2 he nominated," one fan suggested. "No one on the planet is going to like everyone they meet #CBBUK."
A second supporter echoed: "All the hate I’ve seen for the legend #Daley & there he was supporting #Danny tonight & being really lovely.
"He’s right wanting to keep men out of women’s sports, it dosen’t make him transphobic, homophobic or a horrible person! The world's gone mad I swear #cbbuk."
ITV CBB: Michael Fabricant will face the public vote on Friday
ITV
Another hit back: "Daley promises Danny he’ll go to one of his drag shows and all the Twitter loons are saying he won’t as he’s a transphobe. Shows the brain rot of all this.
"Drag is NOTHING to do with keeping men out of women’s sports. You can see it’s working when BBC push drag as trans #cbbuk."
And a fourth weighed in to suggest that the so-called "tolerant" factions of the fandom were quick to judge Thompson.
"Danny and Daley's interaction there just goes to show what happens if you give people time and the opportunity to actually talk to each other #cbbuk," they argued.
Daley fully stepping into his role as dad of the House 💛 #CBBUK pic.twitter.com/1bb6BaAxty
— Celebrity Big Brother UK (@bbuk) April 10, 2025
It's not just from Big Brother fans that Thompson has received support in light of the backlash, as Harry Potter author Rowling and ex-partner Sharron Davies have both publicly backed the star.
Following Thompson and his fellow housemates' nominations, Fabricant and Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd joined Rourke at risk of eviction.
Rourke had previously received a 'killer nomination' from Siwa earlier in the week.
The first eviction of the series will take place on Friday night.
