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Katya Jones has hit out at the ”absurd” claims about her interactions with Wynne Evans on Strictly Come Dancing.
The latest episode of the BBC competition aired on Saturday (12 October), with the results show, which sent home the third celebrity, airing the following night.
Opera singer Evans received his highest scores of the series so far, but this was outshadowed by a furore caused by videos showing his background interactions with Jones.
After the Saturday episode, a video showing Evans awkwardly placing his hand on his professional partner’s stomach, in which Jones removed it and placed it on her hip instead, went viral on social media.
Later, a separate clip was shared from viewers who noticed that Jones refused to give Evans a high five while stood behind the show’s co-host Claudia Winkleman. Jones turned her back on Evans and seemingly rolled her eyes at the opera singer.
Many fans predicted something was “off” between the pair, with some adding they felt tension – but Jones and Evans, realising there was a social media furore brewing, shut down any suggestion of a feud with a video shared online.
When this failed to end the speculation, though, Jones herself shared an additional statement, in which she said: “Happy Sunday, everyone. Now I need to make something crystal clear.
“The hand incident that happened on Saturday night was a very silly inside joke between Wynne and I, so even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended me in any way is complete nonsense.
“It’s quite absurd, actually. Can we focus on how brilliantly he’s doing and what an amazing dancer he’s become?’”
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In the earlier video, Jones had said: “Hi everyone, it’s Wynne and Katya here. We just wanted to say, we were just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night. We just wanted to say sorry. It was a silly joke.”
Evans chimed in, saying: “Yeah. Sorry.” He then wrote in the video caption: “Apologies for this tonight, we were just messing around. We really are amazing friends. The high fives [are] a running joke. Have a great evening.”
