Joey Essex has broken his silence after he was pictured snogging Maura Higgins at last night's Pride of Britain Awards.
The Dancing On Ice star, 32, looked delighted to be in the Love Islander's company as the two were papped leaving the ceremony together.
Fans were sent into a frenzy when they saw a pic of the pair puckering up and now Joey has updated his followers on Instagram.
Posing for a selfie, he held up his finger wrapped in a plaster as he got ready to train for the new series of Dancing On Ice.
Captioning the pic in which he sports a pink beanie and a black tracksuit, Joey wrote: "Healing good."
The star suffered the injury while training alongside Love Island's Ekin-Su ahead of the ITV show in January.
At the time of the incident, Joey took to Instagram to share the wound with his followers.
He captioned the snaps: "Respect the ice, otherwise the ice will not respect you… Day 2"
Despite his injury, the TOWIE veteran was suited and booted for last night's annual Pride of Britain Awards, which were held at London's Grosvenor Hotel.
Reality star Maura also looked ravishing wearing a canary yellow floor-length gown with tulle detail.
As the ceremony came to a close, she and Joey were snapped smiling at each other before sharing a kiss.
After the pair embraced, they soon headed off together and grabbed a taxi with their pals.
Just before last year's Pride of Britain Awards, Maura had split with Strictly's Giovanni Pernice.
The Love Islander was said to be devastated by the break-up with reports suggesting the dancer's work commitments had got in the way.
The pair called it a day after just four months of being together.
But Maura certainly looked like she'd put the past behind her last night.
Joey, meanwhile, has his work cut out getting ready for Dancing On Ice.
He revealed he is doing the show "for himself" and would be taking it seriously, as now was the right time after a previous chance to sign up fell flat.
The reality regular told Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary on This Morning : "I'm so happy, I'm so excited. It's more serious to what I normally do, I've done all the dating shows in the world. This is a bit more serious for me.
"I used to go to foam parties in a dancing rink, I'm not the best skater. I done [ice skating] when I was maybe 11, or 12, but nothing proper, no.
"It's scary, it's a competition. I've done The Jump which was similar but not really. I don't know how I won that. Winning would be a bonus, I'm gonna put my whole energy into it."
