I’m A Celeb star Nella Rose in clash with hotel staff after ‘row over racism’
I’M a Celeb star Nella Rose hit out at a French spa after an alleged incident of 'racial discrimination' this past weekend.
The TV personality, 26, vented about the incident on social media, as she documented her time in France on TikTok.
The reality star had been joined by 19 other influencers of colour on a luxurious work trip in Megève, France, a village resort in the heart of the French Alps.
The content creators were on location to promote and film content for a Black-owned skin-care brand Topicals.
The brand is owned by an entrepreneur called Olamide Olowe, and promotes itself extensively online with the use of influencers and social media stars .
Nella had joined on the trip by an array of popular influencers, including Aiyana Lewis, 26, Shaq Muhammad, 24, Kanaan Pitan, 22 and Jéssica Pimentel, 24.
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Things were seemingly going according to plan, until the group made a stop at the spa area of QC Terme Spa and Resort.
Nella and several of the influencers on the trip, have since returned home and informed their online followers of an alleged racial discriminatory incident which took place at the French Spa.
According to the influencers, the event stemmed from some of the content creators choices of swimwear.
The Catfish UK presenter told her online followers: “We decided to shoot some content at a Spa on the trip. Within the group of 20 Black and Brown people, two of the influencers with us were Muslim.”
She continues: “We get changed into our swimwear, and we begin to make our way to the pool area. I hear a man stop the rest of the girls and he’s speaking French."
The presenter continued: “I can speak French, and I can hear him telling them ‘You guys can’t come in like that. He kept saying ‘We have a shop downstairs, you can buy bikinis and bathing suits there if you like.’ ”
As the group included two influencers who were Muslim women, the media personality believes the influencers more modest swimwear should have allowed them to join the rest of the group in the pool area.
The TV star continued: “Because the two of them are Muslim, they wore a hijab, leggings and a top made of material they could swim in. Of course their swimwear had to be more modest."
She continued: "I tried to explain that to one of the staff members. I spoke to him directly, in French and told him they should be allowed to film.”
According to Nella, the QC Terme Spa staff members refused to listen to Nella and the other influencers who pleaded with the spa team to allow the Muslim influencers to enter the pool area to film content.
The Weakest Link contestant added: “I saw the racism and Islamophobia that was occurring. So, I go back upstairs and spend 10 short minutes taking my pictures as content on my phone."
Nella said the she encouraged the other influencers to quickly take content, so they could leave the French spa. The ordeal supposedly escalated when Nella and the other influencers left the pool area for the lobby.
The YouTuber said the group were then verbally accosted and told by staff managers: “You have offended our spa guests! You girls are going to have a blast at the police station!”
The Belgium-born internet star goes on to say she knew that she would blast the spa on social media as soon as she returned home from the trip.
She blames the spa's establishment for the alleged incident, which resulted in Nella and the influencers refusing to promote the spa.
The next day, skin-care brand Topicals spoke out in defence of their hired content creators.
The brand said: “We experienced discrimination, harassment, and were threatened to have law enforcement called on us.”
They continued: “As a Black-owned brand, we will not allow this to stop us. We will continue to place Black and Brown creators at the forefront of our branded experiences. Discrimination cannot and will not stop us.”
The French spa did not respond to a request for a comment from The Sun at the time of this article.
Nella has over 90 million views across her social media accounts, and is currently building up her television presence as seen in her appearance last year on series 23 of ITV hit show I'm A Celeb.
The reality star spent 17 days in New South Wales, before being voted out of the show.
She experienced many highs and lows during the series, most notably with Channel 4 First Dates Fred Sireix, 52.
The contestants clashed over a seemingly misinterpreted comment within the first few days of the show. Prior to the disagreement, Nella had confided in Fred about the tragic loss of her parents.
Later on that day in an unrelated discussion, Fred made a comment about being old enough "to be her dad."
This infuriated Nella, who believed the there may have been a negative connotation behind his comment.
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Fred profusely apologised, which Nella accepted, before telling him: "I accept your apology but let's not be friends." The two remained civil for the rest of their time on the show.
Shortly after exiting the programme, Nella spoke to presenter Rylan Clark, 35, on This Morning. She said: "It was a big fat misunderstanding and we've gone over it. Me and Fred are cool."
