Anton Du Beke has opened up about his "awful" partners on Strictly Come Dancing while showing support for Giovanni Pernice amid the misconduct scandal.
The 58-year-old pro dancer has partnered with celebrities including Ruth Langsford, Ann Widdecombe, Lesley Joseph, and Dame Esther Rantzen.
He has now insisted that his Strictly training sessions never turned heated because he was typically paired with older women, who he believed would be "awful" dancers.
The star, who is now a judge on the BBC show, told the Cheltenham Literature Festival “I say this in the nicest way but none of them are 25” before adding later: “Because they can't dance, even when they are good it is awful.”
Discussing his former celebrity dance partners, Du Beke added: “They are wonderful, interesting, fabulous, brilliant, funny, intelligent women who I enjoyed every second with, but it is what it is.
“I said to one of my partners, ‘Are you flexible’. They said, ‘Yes but I can't do Tuesdays’,” he joked, adding that all he wanted was for them to “try their best. That is as much as you can do.”
His comments come after Du Beke came under fire in July after comments he made about his then celebrity dance partner, Laila Rouass, resurfaced.
During the 2009 series, he upset Rouass, who is of Indian and Moroccan descent, when he jokingly remarked that she “looked like a P***” following a spray tan, a comment that resurfaced in July.
At the time, the pro dancer publicly apologised to the British actress, expressing that he felt “stupid” and “embarrassed” by his words, and the two reconciled a weeks later.
In July, The Sun reported that the TV star was “said to be considering legal action” which she later spoke out in Du Beke’s defence and insisted that she wasn’t.
In a lengthy statement shared to her Instagram Story, she concluded her posts: "Needless to say, I have not made an official complaint to the BBC regarding Anton and I do not intend to. I do however welcome conversations with the BBC about their duty of care."
Elsewhere, Du Beke recently expressed his support for Giovanni Pernice, who shared his “relief” at being cleared of the “majority” of allegations made against him by his former partner, actress Amanda Abbington.
In a video shared on Instagram following the investigation, Pernice said that he was “happy” to learn that all of the “very serious allegations” hadn't been upheld.
The Italian dancer added: “I’m happy because today I can carry on to do what I was born to do, and I love to do which is entertain all of you, because this is my life.”
