Reality star 'scarred for life' after being mauled by XL Bully

Reality TV star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, best known for appearing on Big Brother, was rushed to hospital after being bitten by an XL Bully.

The media personality, who has an extensive history in reality television and has featured on Loose Women and Good Morning Britain, issued a warning to her followers after the incident.

Revealing that she is now ‘in agony’, the 47-year-old shared a photo of her injury, bandaged up on the shoulder and in clear discomfort as she awaited treatment.

‘I’ve been bitten by an XL BULLY!!!!!’, she stated, adding that ‘you can see [her] bone’.

In a second, she posed next to the dog, 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.

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 pact 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’.

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’.

As a previous XL Bully owner, the Venom actor, 48, said his dog, Cass, had been a ‘deeply kind and loving companion’.

Taking to Instagram, he said that many pets ‘pose no threat whatsoever’, but he was still ‘deeply concerned by the rise in the number of dog attacks’.

‘We must ensure that dogs do not pose a risk to people and that measures in place to protect the public are effective,’ he added. ‘But a blanket ban on bully’s is extreme and avoids blame where it lies at the detriment to many pets that pose no threat whatsoever. We can do better. My dog Cass was an XL Bully and she was great [sic]’.

Others who spoke out included Love Island’s Faye Winter, who said she felt that dog owners were being ‘discriminated against’ and called for the government (helmed by Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives at the time) to see the ‘positive side’ of the breed.

Meanwhile, Gemma Atkinson called the attacks on people ‘horrendous’ but believed that dogs are a ‘product of [their] environment’.

So far this year, reports of attacks and convictions have included a man being found guilty after his XL Bully savaged an 84-year-old man on a driveway. The seven-stone dog was shot 10 times by officers; the incident proved fatal, as John McColl died five weeks later.

On the same day that Sean Garner was convicted and told he would receive a ‘substantial prison sentence’, another man, Ashley Warren, was jailed for more than 10 years after his XL Bully dog mauled his ex-partner’s mother, Esther Martin, to death.

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