Graziano Di Prima was removed from Strictly Come Dancing after he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott during rehearsals, his spokesperson has said.
Di Prima, who joined the Strictly lineup in 2018, announced last weekend he was leaving the programme.
The dancer’s spokesperson, Mark Borkowski, told BBC News: “There is never a time when kicking or any sense of that is right. And he knows that. He knows he’s made a mistake. He apologised at the time.”
He said Di Prima did not clearly remember the incident that occurred last year but did not deny there was a kick and accepted he had “crossed the line”.
Borkowski denied reports that the 30-year-old spat on McDermott.
Di Prima “does remember that he was pushing [McDermott] quite hard” in training on the day in question, Borkowski said. “But he doesn’t recognise some of the issues surrounding it. The descriptions of what is being commented online, and how he remembers it, are not aligned.”
Borkowski said it was “absolute rubbish” that a single incident was typical of what went on during “weeks and weeks of training”.
A video of the incident during a rehearsal is believed to have been brought to the attention of the BBC last week.
Di Prima has returned home to Italy and is doing manual labour on a remote farm. Borkowski described him as “vulnerable”, telling PA Media: “The deluge of commentary, too often without context or nuance, has provoked a pile-on that has left a young man in a very vulnerable state”.
In a statement last Saturday, Di Prima said he “deeply regrets” the events that led to his departure, and that his “intense passion and determination to win might have affected my training regime”.
McDermott, a documentary presenter and former Love Island contestant, posted a statement saying she was involved in incidents in the training room that she found “incredibly distressing” to watch back.
She said she “fully understood the level of commitment and hard work that Strictly was going to be and I dedicated everything to it”. “I am a resilient person and I was fully prepared to put in whatever it took,” she added.
McDermott said much of the Strictly experience was “everything I could have dreamt of” and the show’s team were “so amazing to work with”.
“However, my experience inside the training room was very different. Reports have been made about my treatment on the show and there were witnesses to some events, as well as videos of particular incidents which are incredibly distressing to watch,” she said.
The show has been engulfed in controversy after complaints about another professional dancer, Giovanni Pernice, as well as Di Prima. Pernice, 33, has denied “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”.
On Tuesday the BBC announced that Strictly’s professional dancers would no longer be left on their own with contestants during rehearsals. A member of the production team will be present during training room rehearsals “at all times” and there will also be two dedicated welfare producers as part of a series of extra measures.
The legal firm Carter-Ruck said it had contacted the broadcaster regarding “numerous serious complaints” about Pernice’s alleged behaviour while filming Strictly.
Kate Phillips, the BBC’s director of unscripted, said the “vast majority of those who have taken part” in the show had had positive experiences. She said: “If issues are raised with us, or we’re made aware of inappropriate behaviour, we will always take that seriously and act.”
