Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace has spoken out after being left with lifelong scars in a horrifying dog attack, revealing she has been subjected to a wave of abuse online instead of sympathy.
The former Big Brother star, 47, was rushed to hospital after being bitten by what she says was a Standard Bully during a friend’s baby shower, suffering deep wounds to her shoulder that came dangerously close to her neck.
The media personality — who has an extensive history in reality television and has featured on Loose Women and Good Morning Britain — says the physical injuries have been compounded by relentless victim-blaming from strangers on social media, something she believes has been almost as traumatic as the attack itself.
‘The amount of victim-blaming has been diabolical,’ she told The Sun. ’People were saying the dog should have bitten me closer to the neck or that if they were the dog they would have done the same thing.
‘Even if I had been drunk – which I wasn’t – your dog still shouldn’t bite somebody.’
The TV personality admitted reading the comments left her dreading picking up her phone each morning.
‘I was waking up feeling awful, wondering what people were going to say next,’ she explained. ‘Then my boyfriend reminded me: “You’re the victim here.” That completely changed my mindset.’
The terrifying incident unfolded at what should have been a joyful celebration.
Aisleyne says she had met the large dog before and remembered it as friendly, but immediately felt uneasy when she arrived and noticed it had been tethered to a sofa inside a hot room while guests enjoyed the party outside.
‘I just felt sorry for him,’ she recalled. ‘I thought, “That dog must be getting frustrated.”’
Before leaving the party, Aisleyne decided to say goodbye to the animal. She says she deliberately approached calmly, sitting on the floor beside the dog rather than leaning over it because she understands how dogs can perceive body language.
Everything appeared fine until she turned to leave.
‘Out of nowhere, he just bit me,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t even looking at him.’
The bite landed high on her shoulder, close to her collarbone.
‘I heard my bone crunch. I’ll never forget that sound.’
Despite the severity of the injury, Aisleyne says her first instinct was to avoid ruining the celebration.
‘I was trying to style it out because I didn’t want to upset my friend.’
That quickly became impossible as blood poured down her arm.
‘Everyone started screaming because there was blood everywhere. I was just begging someone to get me a towel.’
She was driven to hospital by a friend, where doctors decided not to stitch the wounds immediately because of the high risk of infection from a dog bite.
Instead, she spent several days with what she describes as ‘two gaping holes’ in her shoulder while receiving antibiotics, a tetanus injection and later stitches.
The attack has also left lasting emotional scars.
XL Bully UK ban
As of February 2024, it is a criminal offence to own or possess an XL Bully dog in England and Wales unless you have a valid Certificate of Exemption. The rules came into force later in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The ban was enforced under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 following a series of attacks, which police said had put a ‘huge burden’ on forces.
As the largest kind of American Bully dog, the XL Bully is described as having ‘a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power’. Their coat is glossy and smooth, and adults are around 19-20 inches in height.
Between 2023 and 2024, NHS England recorded almost 11,000 hospital admissions for dog bites in England. In Wales, there were 600 hospitalisations from dog bites and over 1,100 in Scotland.
The government declared that the dog breed had been ‘disproportionately involved’ in deaths recorded since 2021.
And since the ban was brought in, fatalities involving the dogs have fallen – there were 10 in the UK in 2024, and four in 2025, yet attacks still happen.
Several cases have seen owners and children killed.
Police now have the authority to seize unregistered prohibited dogs, and owners face up to six months in jail and/or an unlimited fine.
The public response to the ban has been mixed, though, with celebrities like Tom Hardy previously branding it ‘extreme’.
‘I can already feel the PTSD,’ she admitted. ‘I used to be completely comfortable around dogs of any size. Now I’m frightened.’
Although Aisleyne says she never publicly identified the dog’s owner and even offered to contribute towards professional behavioural training for the animal, she claims the situation escalated after she began receiving abuse online.
She says police later became involved after the incident came to their attention.
Rather than blaming the dog itself, Aisleyne believes irresponsible ownership is the real issue and wants tougher regulations for powerful breeds.
‘These dogs are incredibly powerful,’ she said. ‘People should have to complete training before they’re allowed to own one.
‘They’re being bought as status symbols by some people who don’t understand how to care for them properly.’
She also believes the dog’s welfare played a role in what happened. ‘That poor dog was tied up in a boiling hot room. Something clearly wasn’t right.
‘I’m a dog mum myself. If my dog bit someone, my first thought wouldn’t be to attack the victim. I’d want to understand why it happened and get the dog the help it needed.’
For Aisleyne, speaking publicly now is about correcting what she says has been a false narrative.
‘I never named the owner or tried to shame anyone,’ she said. ‘But so many lies have been spread online that I felt I had to finally tell people what really happened.’
When the incident first happened back in June, the star posted on her Instagram stories about the attack, revealing that she is now ‘in agony’ and sharing a photo of her injury covered by bandages.
‘I’ve been bitten by an XL BULLY!!!!!’, she stated, adding that ‘you can see [her] bone’.
In a second post, she posed next to the dog in a photo taken a few minutes before he attacked her.
‘Everyone knows I’m a dog mummy. I love dogs. This dog loved me, then for a split second for no reason he didn’t…,’ she wrote.
‘Please please please understand how to raise and how these babies can switch.’
In a later post, she said she’s ‘thankful’ the bite wasn’t on her face or neck and ‘glad’ the victim wasn’t a child.
‘Sad I’m scarred for life,’ she added. ‘Glad it wasn’t a child and it was me… So conflicted.
‘Dogs are pack animals they need you to be their leader. It makes them feel safe to know you are in control.
‘If you let them do mad behaviour they will eventually execute that.
‘Big dogs are so powerful… protect your kids it ain’t a joke [sic]’.
Upon returning home to her own dogs, Aisleyne thanked her 900,000+ followers for their supportive messages, replying to one who shared that their friend’s daughter was killed in a dog attack, leaving the BB housemate feeling ‘lucky in this instance’.