Diana Beard
'The Great British Bake Off' star Diana Beard has accused the BBC of "exploiting" her.
The 69-year-old baking enthusiast has hit out at the editing of the latest episode after she was accused of sabotaging fellow contestant Iain Watters by taking his ice cream out of the freezer during a challenge which saw the contestants attempt to master a Baked Alaska pudding.
Furious Diana - dubbed 'Dirty Diana' by outraged viewers on social media - said: "It's a relief, as people now know the truth. I've been really stitched up, haven't I? I'm very disappointed.
"This has made it look like a cut-throat competition. Somebody is culpable for the editing, exploiting normal everyday people for entertainment.
"The BBC painted me. Anyone who knows me knows I haven't got that sort of bone in my body."
Diana, who quit the show after filming the fourth episode due to illness, admits she did remove Iain's ice cream from a freezer - which was allocated to her, not Iain - but doesn't think this is the reason it melted, resulting in the bearded baker having a meltdown and throwing his dessert in the bin.
She told The Sun newspaper: "I asked whose [ice cream] it was and took it out because mine needed freezing. Then Iain came and took it away."