John tells me I need a facelift but I know he is only joking

HER husband John McCririck has shocked the nation's women with his sexist remarks about her, but last night the Celebrity Big Brother contestant's longsuffering wife insisted she would stand by him.

Jenny McCririck said her husband, a Channel 4 racing correspondent, was "very kind, generous and reliable" and dismissed his disparaging comments - for example that she needed a facelift - as jokes.

"I can't believe everyone is writing such drivel," she said.

McCririck has said he calls his wife "the Booby" because, like the South American bird, "she is not very bright", she "squawks around a lot" and was "easy to catch".

In a short video screened the night he went into the Big Brother house, the docile Booby was shown waiting on her husband hand and foot while he barked out his orders.

McCririck does not cook, clean or drive. He cannot change a lightbulb. He despises feminism - he says it has given women ideas "above their station".

He thinks men should date ugly women ("they're grateful") and likes big bosoms (which is why he has a dog called Double D). "Flat chests?" he harrumphed, as if he were Hugh Hefner himself. "No chance." But, while the nation reeled in horror, his wife was unfazed. She said she was not bothered about her nickname: "You can be called a lot worse." She admitted he made personal comments about her and her friends. "Well, he does say things about Botox and women with fringes," she said. "But when he says to me, 'You need a facelift', it's a joke. If you knew him, you'd know that he is very kind."

What about the fact that he likes to call her his "minister of cleaning"?

"But he doesn't mind paying for people to come in," she explains. "I do have help in the house. If someone is very busy, I don't think it's right for them to do the housework."

She said she was amazed when he agreed to do the show, particularly after she advised him to turn it down.

"He thought it'd be a nice little earner. He thought of it as a job. He said: 'Well, they've offered me a decent fee, and I'll be out of there in time for Sandown on Saturday'. He believed what the press said, which is that there would be voting after 24 hours.

He thought he'd be voted out. But it hasn't quite worked out that way."

She said she felt sorry for him stuck in the Big Brother house. This week, McCririck was in a huge sulk because Big Brother had not kept him in diet cola, and was refusing to speak to the other celebrities or help them with their tasks.

His wife was full of sympathy. The producers, she said, had reneged on a verbal contract. "He's overweight. He wanted to make sure he didn't have lots of sugary drinks."

Asked why such a seemingly small matter made him so furious, she said: "It's hot in the studio, and he hates the food. If he hadn't taken in his own tea, I don't know what he'd be doing."

And how does she feel about the loud suits, bling jewellery and ridiculous deerstalkers? It seems even Booby has her limits. "Look," she said. "I can't do anything with him. I don't think anyone can."

Keep up, keep up ... the BB plot so far

SMALL MUTINY There was a small mutiny as the housemates became increasingly frustrated with Celebrity Big Brother following Germaine Greer's shock walkout and the disruptive arrival of Jackie Stallone. Brigitte Nielsen, who had earlier threatened to leave the show, was humiliatingly told to warm up former mother-inlaw Jackie's bed and toilet seat.

Soon after the housemates abandoned their current royal task.

BEST ACTION

Pundit John McCririck went back on his silence vow and launched into colourful clashes with 71-year-old Jackie.

BEST QUOTE

"She's the next worst thing to the Bride of Wildenstein," - McCririck compares Jackie to American society diva Jocelyn Wildenstein, famed for her love of plastic surgery.

WHAT'S TO COME

The turmoil in the house has created a number of questions .

Will the housemates turn their mutiny into a "f***ing revolution", as suggested by Bez? Will Brigitte follow through her threat to quit the show?

And who - if anybody - will be brought in to replace Greer?

Producers have also postponed the first round of eviction nominations, which may now take place tonight ahead of Friday's expected public vote.

Greer: It was like an old folk's home

GERMAINE GREER has compared the Big Brother house to life in an old people's home.

The academic, who walked out of the show after four and a half days, explained it was her commitment to rehabilitating land she owns in Australia which made her take part. "It has earned me cash that will be the rainforest cushion," she said.

But the 65-year-old feminist icon also revealed a more subconscious reason for taking part in the programme. She wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "For a few days, I have been living something like the life my mother leads in a nursing home in Victoria. There's only one way out of the Big Brother house for her. God forbid I should complain."

Greer added that John McCririck was "odd" with "repellent views", but she described Kenzie, 19, as "adorable".

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