Carole voted out of Big Brother house

Tabloid journalist Carole Malone has been evicted from the Big Brother house.

The 52-year-old was told she would have to exit the house after gaining more votes than A-Team star Dirk Benedict.

Seventies pop singer Leo Sayer had been due to face the eviction vote too but instead walked out in a rage earlier in the day after he ran out of clean underwear.

Blonde Carole, who entered the house to satisfy her "journalistic curiosity", was banned from nominating her housemates for eviction because she broke Big Brother rules.

After secret discussions over nominations with actress Cleo Rocos last week, the other housemates had to decide which lady should face the public vote.

Most hands shot up for Carole despite tearful outbursts over Big Brother's "cruelty" from beauty queen Danielle Lloyd, reality TV star Jade Goody and Bollywood queen Shilpa Shetty.

Carole was upset that Shilpa had not also been punished after her contribution to the nominations chat and insisted it was because Big Brother was being "divisive".

Curly-haired Leo, 58, was the third person to quit the series after wannabe bad boy rocker Donny Tourette and film-maker Ken Russell also walked out.

The housemates commented on his departure: "Oh well, another one bites the dust."

Carole smiled after being told of her fate by presenter Davina McCall and was given an hour to prepare for her exit.

Danielle and other housemates murmured “Sorry Carole” but she laughed off the comments, saying: “There you go … we knew one of us had to go.”

The tabloid journalist received 77.4% of the total votes cast.

Earlier tonight, singer Leo was interviewed by Davina over his reasons for kicking down a door and leaving the house before the eviction.

She told the pop star that he had received the most votes from viewers before his early exit, meaning that he would have been kicked out tonight.

Leo said: “I honestly did try and stay as long as possible. When you’re young and you sleep over at friends’ houses then it’s fine but you start to move on from that.

“I haven’t shared a house with people for a long time.”

The 58-year-old, who lives in Sydney, Australia, said he struggled with sharing a shower with his housemates and complained about the fluff from the new towels.

“I wasn’t prepared mentally to go in there,” he said. “I just rushed over here.”

Davina said out of all the 145 housemates to have taken part in the show over the years, Leo was the one that was “most angry at Big Brother”.

But she described him as “very entertaining to watch”.

One sign held by the cheering crowd said: “Leo’s hair is as big as his ego”.