Last week, Ashley had a front-row seat when The GC hit the deck live on air, admitting she earned his “respect” for the way she carried on with her performance after the incident.
“Me, Jane, Chris and Jason were probably the only people in the country who had the view we had,” he told HuffPost UK. “Everybody else had the opposing view with the cameras behind, but we literally saw her face go hurtling towards the ice – so it was quite scary because she was skating at us when it happened!”
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Dancing On Ice judge Ashley Banjo
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He added: “I didn’t think she was getting up to be honest, because what you can’t get with a camera is the complete physicality of it.
“There was a real thud and the ice is just so unforgiving – she hit it flat-on. So I really didn’t know if she was going to get up or not. She had my respect when she got up, definitely.”
Ashley went on to suggest Gemma had turned over a new leaf in recent weeks, commenting: “She’s working hard at the moment – she hasn’t done in the past in the show I think – but the past couple of weeks she’s really put the work in.”
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Gemma took a tumble during the most recent live show
Matt Frost/ITV/REX/Shutterstock
He also passed comment on fellow judge Jason Gardiner, and while he refused to say he felt his fellow judge crossed a line with his harsh critiques, Ashley was quick to insist he wouldn’t be following in his footsteps any time soon.
“Would I say [the things Jason says]? Maybe not,” he explained, before adding: “But I’m not Jason.
“I feel like he never pulls it out of thin air. The thing about Jason is if he thinks it, he’s got his way of saying it.
“He’s been a part of Dancing On Ice for over a decade, so people know exactly what Jason’s like, they know the kind of critique he gives, so I don’t think the celebrities come into it blind. They can never say they didn’t sign up for it. But at the same time, he can be really brutally honest.
“If I was a contestant in the show, I would just find the truth, the useful critique in his comments, try to strip away some of the delivery and think ‘okay, that’s what I need to work on’. It’s about taking it with a pinch of salt.”
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Jason and Ashley with fellow judges Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
ITV/Rex/Shutterstock
Referring to Jason’s recent on-air confrontation with Gemma, in which she accused him of “selling stories” on her, Ashley noted: “It’s always bound to happen when you’ve got big personalities clashing, and then you add in working hard, you add in tiredness.
“All of that breeds emotion and Gemma and Jason went at each other, and we saw Gemma put a lot of work in, then she had the big fall, so she’s on an absolute rollercoaster of a journey in this show.”
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"Cut the bullshit" "'K"
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