TV show contestant not told of dad’s death

Producers of Australia’s version of the reality TV show “Big Brother” said Thursday they have not told a contestant that her father died last week and were acting according to her family’s wishes.

Personal trainer Emma Cornell, 24, is competing on a program that began a month ago, in which cameras watch contestants kept isolated from events happening outside a house on Queensland state’s Gold Coast.

Her father, Raymond Cornell, died of cancer at 53 last week and was buried Monday in the southern city of Adelaide, said a spokesman for the program’s producer, Endemol Southern Star.

The spokesman said the family asked producers not to tell Cornell about her dad’s death.

“We’re abiding by her family’s wishes in not informing her,” he said. “It wasn’t a difficult decision. We’re just respecting their wishes.”

The Sydney woman’s boyfriend, Tim Stanton, told that city’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that Cornell knew her father was gravely ill, but his death would shock her because he was not expected to die so soon.

“Big Brother,” now in its seventh season, has been dogged by controversy, mostly focused on contestants’ unruly behavior.