A Big Brother couple have blamed their divorce on a Northamptonshire conman who tricked them into filming a bogus reality TV show he had dreamt up.
Mario Marconi and Lisa Appleton, who were on the Channel Four show in 2008, were tricked into filming ‘Lisa and Mario: Their Journey’ by serial fraudster and fantasist Selva Carmichael - who used to run The Fox and Hounds pub in Whittlebury.
He ran the pub around five years ago.
The couple were never paid a penny for their work, despite being filmed for 18 hours a day, and the show was never aired.
Carmichael - who calls himself ‘The Silver Fox’ - also targeted X Factor singer Chico by posing as his manager.
It has now emerged Lisa and Mario are to divorce, blaming the stress of the con.
Speaking to the Mirror, Lisa claims the conman had “destroyed their relationship”.
Speaking about the split, Lisa said: “Towards the end we just hated each other - Carmichael tore our lives apart and destroyed our relationship.
“Mario and I were unhappy for a while - our whole world fell apart around us when we got conned.”
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