Strictly Come Dancing contestant Wynne Evans has voiced upset after an incident in the latest live show sparked a media furore.
During Saturday night’s live show, the opera singer, DJ and star of Go Compare’s long-running ad campaign was spotted moving his hand across dance partner Katya Jones’ middle, to which she responded by pushing it away.
Later in the show, some viewers also picked up on a supposedly frosty moment between the pair.
While they promptly issued an apology over the incident, which they described as a “silly joke” between them, Wynne also addressed it on his BBC Radio Wales show on Monday morning.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day,” he told his listeners.
He explained: “Basically, Katya and I are really, really close and we’re really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke. It was a stupid joke that went wrong, OK?
“We thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.”
He added: “We’ve got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I’m sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke. And that’s all there is. There is no real story, really.”
Katya also dismissed the controversy in an Instagram post of her own on Sunday.
Jumping to her celebrity partner’s defence, she insisted: “The hand incident that happened on Saturday night was a very silly, very silly inside joke between Wynne and I.”
She insisted: “Even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is complete nonsense. It’s quite absurd, actually.”
HuffPost UK has contacted the BBC for additional comment.
Wynne and Katya will perform their fifth routine of the series this weekend, after sailing through to the next stage of the contest in Sunday’s results show.
Strictly Come Dancing will continue on Saturday night at 6.25pm on BBC One.