Mickey Rourke is considering legal action against ITV after his Celebrity Big Brother exit, it’s been revealed.
The Hollywood star, 72, was kicked out of the reality programme on Saturday following a series of incidents and warnings.
It has since been reported that he’ll be missing out on his rumoured £500,000 fee, and has racked up some hefty bills from hotels in London costing him around $50,000 (£38,000).
His representative Kimberly Hines has revealed Rourke’s team are speaking with lawyers in the UK and considering a lawsuit against ITV.
They said the series had disrespected the star by ‘publicly embarrassing him’, adding: ‘There’s no question that when Big Brother booked Mickey Rourke, they were fully aware of both his public persona and how it aligned with his Hollywood rebel image.’
They said that the show knew his presence would be ‘explosive, controversial and attention-grabbing — and that’s exactly what they got, and more’.
They added to People Magazine: ‘In our discussions, Big Brother was made fully aware of Mickey Rourke’s background and lifestyle.
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‘Yet rather than handle it professionally, they took it too far — publicly embarrassing him and using his removal as a marketing tool. That’s not just unprofessional; it’s deeply disrespectful and damaging.’
They claimed Big Brother has not yet paid Rourke his full agreed-upon fee and that his legal team is now pursuing the matter.
They had earlier told TMZ that the former boxer is being ‘unjustly denied a major payday’ after his axe on Saturday, just short of a week of being in the house.
Hines added that Rourke has spent thousands on hotel fees, after booking a lavish hotel for his team which he now has to pay for.
Reports had earlier stated that Rourke wouldreceive some compensation for his time and appearance on Celebrity Big Brother for less than a week, but it’s likely to be much less than he’d originally agreed to.
‘Mickey won’t be receiving all his money from ITV,’ an insider revealed.
They continued to say that it’s standard protocol if a celebrity gets removed from the house, ‘they don’t get the full fee’.
‘It’s as simple as that and they will be discussing that with him. Mickey was ready to leave the house and it ended up feeling like a mutual decision between him and ITV in the end. It was getting too much,’ the source told The Sun.
This comes after Rourke sparked more than 1,000 Ofcom complaints for his ‘unacceptable’ behaviour and language.
He had initially sparked backlash before even entering the house, when he displayed ‘creepy’ behaviour towards host AJ Odudu during the launch.
His actions were branded ‘vile’ after grabbing her and pulling her towards him, before eyeing her up and down, with some people calling it ‘harassment’.
Once inside the house, Rourke displayed further shocking behaviour, using a homophobic slur against popstar JoJo Siwa, and saying: ‘If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore.’
He was given a warning by Big Brother, while Siwa gave him a killer nomination, but was saved from the first eviction which saw Michael Fabricant leave the house.
Just a day later, Rourke was axed after his behaviour and language to Love Island star Chris Hughes during a disagreement in a task was considered to be threatening and physical, though no physical altercation took place.
What did Mickey Rourke say to JoJo Siwa on Celebrity Big Brother?
On Celebrity Big Brother 2025, Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke sparked uproar with homophobic comments that he made towards internet sensation JoJo Siwa.
Speaking in the House, Rourke, 72, asked Siwa, 21: ‘So do you like girls or boys?’
‘Me? Girls,’ Siwa answered, to which Rourke responded: ‘I know, I could tell.’
After the dancer shared that her partner is non-binary, the housemates who were in the garden started to talk about the eviction due to take place that week on Friday night.
‘If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore,’ Rourke remarked, as Siwa said back to him: ‘I can guarantee I will still be gay and I will still be in a very happy relationship.’
‘I’ll tie you up,’ The Wrestler actor replied.
‘I can promise you that won’t happen,’ Siwa stated. ‘I dare you to try, you’ll be the one tied up.’
Rourke then spoke to some other housemates, asking about the process of voting out other contestants on Celebrity Big Brother.
‘I’m going to vote the lesbian out real quick,’ he said, as Siwa – who was lying on a sun lounger – turned her head towards him and declared: ‘That’s homophobic.’
‘Eh?’ Rourke asked, as Siwa continued: ‘That’s homophobic if that was your reasoning.’
After the actor repeated that he was going to ‘vote the lesbian out’, he then used a slang word beginning with f to say that he wanted a cigarette.
However, he then gestured towards Siwa and quipped: ‘Not talking to you,’ seemingly referencing the f word that’s used as an anti-gay slur.
Love Island star Chris Hughes, who was sitting next to Rourke, told him: ‘You can’t say that Mickey,’ while Siwa kept her composure and said: ‘One breath at a time troops, one breath at a time.’
After Hughes repeated his warning to Rourke, the actor insisted that he had been talking about a cigarette before walking off on his own.
The reality TV star went over to check on Siwa, consoling her as she cried in his arms over the upset. At the same time, Rourke was called to the Diary Room, where he received a formal warning for his remarks.
Later on inside the lounge, Rourke went over to Siwa as he told her: ‘I want to apologise,’ telling her that he has a ‘bad habit of having a short fuse’.
‘I don’t mean nothing by it. Ok sorry,’ he said as he shook her hand, while she told him that she appreciated his apology.
Rourke’s homophobic comments towards Siwa happened a day after he was criticised for touching presenter AJ Odudu ‘inappropriately’ on stage.
He also left Towie star Ella Rae Wise in tears following an inappropriate sexual comment.
Now, Ofcom has confirmed Rourke sparked more than 1,000 complaints relating to three incidents.
His language to Siwa led to 1,010 complaints, his behaviour towards Odudu sparked a further 78 as well as 89 the week before, and Ofcom confirmed to Metro that a further 52 complaints were made relating to housemates’ behaviour towards Rourke and his subsequent eviction.
At the time of his eviction, a Celebrity Big Brother spokesperson said: ‘Mickey Rourke has agreed to leave the Celebrity Big Brother House this evening following a discussion with Big Brother regarding further use of inappropriate language and instances of unacceptable behaviour.’
Metro understands there have been further instances where he used inappropriate language.
Upon leaving the house, Rourke shared his upset and admitted he had taken things too far.
‘I stepped over the line. And I take responsibility for doing the wrong thing,’ he said. ‘Because I lost my temper, and I’ve been trying to work on it my whole life and I wish I would have had better self-control and I’m very sorry.
‘I’m ashamed of myself for losing it for a few seconds there. Nobody got touched or hurt.
‘Maybe some feelings got hurt or maybe others have feelings about others getting upset but, you know, I’m sorry about that.’
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This comes after Rourke revealed his intention for signing up to the programme – despite having never watched the show before.
‘It was between this or a really bad independent movie, and I’ve had it up to here with really bad independent movies.
‘So I said, you know what? Let’s go do that thing in England. I want to go to London anyway.
‘I know nothing about this show. I’m not worried — I don’t care about any bad habits I might have for the world to see,’ he told The Sun.
TMZ added that Rourke only took part in the series because he was in ‘serious financial trouble’ and allegedly needed to pay debts, but has remained silent about it because ‘he has dignity and is proud’.
It’s claimed he wants to put Celebrity Big Brother behind him and focus on’his final comeback’.
Celebrity Big Brother continues tonight at 9pm on ITV1.
Metro has approached ITV for comment.
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