Strictly Come Dancing contestant Michelle Visage has hit back at claims that she was not invited to take part in the show’s upcoming tour because she demanded a higher fee than the other stars.
Earlier this week, Michelle admitted she was “gutted” when it was confirmed that she would not be hitting the road on next year’s Strictly tour, admitting she wanted “desperately” to tour the UK with her fellow stars.
A rep for the RuPaul’s Drag Race judge has since offered more of her side of the story, claiming Michelle “was asked her availability for the tour and was waiting for confirmation”.
“She’d have loved to have done it. She was available for every date of the tour and the organisers were very aware of this,” her spokesperson told The Sun.
“But for whatever reason, they decided not to have Michelle on.”
The Sun has also quoted a supposed “Strictly source” who claimed that a pre-scheduled appearance at the drag convention DragCon meant she’d have had to miss more than one date, also claiming there was “some discussion about her fee”.
According to The Sun’s “source”: “All celebrities are paid the same but Michelle wanted to be paid more.”
However, Michelle’s rep told the newspaper: “There was no discussion of any other fee.”
As well as Strictly tour drama, Michelle has also been forced to speak out this week amid reports that she was “unhappy” with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice, with whom she found herself in the bottom two last weekend.
In Saturday night’s live show, she and Giovanni performed their much-awaited Couple’s Choice routine to Madonna’s Vogue, but a lot of viewers felt they’d been unfairly marked when they wound up at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Find out how the remaining couples get on in this week’s Strictly results show airing at 7.15pm on BBC One.