The Great British Bake Off star Rebs Lightbody has been forced to defend her absence from this week's episode.
Rebs and fellow contestant Abdul missed Bread Week due to feeling under the weather, prompting some viewers to joke that they too would 'pull a sickie' if it meant they could avoid one of the show's most difficult challenges.
However, Rebs has now taken to social media to address speculation about her absence and deny that she would fake being sick in order to get out of doing a task.
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She tweeted: "Will say it once for the people in the back, I DID NOT want to miss bread week (it was probably my strongest week), I was forced to go home for the safety of all in the tent, I just wanted the world to see my Lahmacun pizza and Mexican style smorgastarta! #gbbo.
"No matter what you think of me and my bakes pls know I didn’t pull a "sickie", I begged to stay and then I cried all the way back to Northern Ireland."
She later shared a screenshot of a Snapchat message she sent to her friend from the taxi ride home, reading: "Camila Cabello said ain’t no crying in the club but she never said anything about not crying in the taxi cause you’re missing your best baking week."
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The bakers were tasked with creating two share-sized pizzas for Bread Week's Signature challenge, which resulted in a variety of flavours including Hawaiian, sweet rosemary lamb, spicy Malaysian prawn and even full English breakfast.
Due to Rebs and Abdul's absence, judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith revealed that no contestants would be going home.
The Great British Bake Off airs on Channel 4 in the UK. In the US, it's known as The Great British Baking Show, and streams on Netflix. Bake Off: An Extra Slice, hosted by Tom Allen and Jo Brand, will be airing on Thursdays at 8pm on Channel 4.
