Contestant kept unaware that her father is dead and buried

AUSTRALIA: A contestant on the Australian TV version of Big Brother remains unaware that her father has died and was buried …

AUSTRALIA:A contestant on the Australian TV version of Big Brother remains unaware that her father has died and was buried this week, the producer said yesterday.

Personal trainer Emma Cornell (24) is competing in the fly on-the-wall reality TV programme, which began a month ago. Contestants are being kept isolated from events happening in the outside world in a purpose-built house on the Gold Coast in Queensland state.

Cornell's father, Raymond, died of cancer in a hospice on Wednesday last week, aged 53, and was buried in the southern city of Adelaide on Monday, a spokesman for the programme's producer, Endemol Southern Star, confirmed.

"We're abiding by her family's wishes in not informing her," said the spokesman.