Strictly Come Dancing contestant Wynne Evans has said he feels “heartbroken” over the reaction to a clip from the BBC show, which saw dance partner Katya Jones move his hand from her waist.
A separate moment shared online showed Jones refuse an offer of a high-five from Evans.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, he said: “I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.”
He went on to call the incident a “stupid joke”, and added: “We thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.”
The pair apologised in a video shared on Sunday, explaining the two exchanges were an inside joke.
Jones said: “We just wanted to say we were just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke.”
In a separate video, Jones called the suggestion Evans had made her uncomfortable “absurd”.
“Even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended me in any way is complete nonsense,” she said.
“It’s quite absurd actually.”
The couple made it through to next week’s live show after scoring 34 from the judges for their tango to Abba’s Money, Money, Money on Saturday – their highest score of the series so far.
A Strictly representative also claimed the pair were just joking during the interactions, and apologised.
“Katya would like to clarify further that she was not offended by Wynne and was not made to feel uncomfortable in the least,” a statement said.
“The welfare team have checked in on the pair and there are no further actions planned.”
Strictly returned for its 20th series with some changes, including the presence of chaperones during rehearsals.
The measure was introduced following a review launched by the corporation after Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington made complaints about her 2023 Strictly professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice.
The BBC last month apologised to Abbington, and said it upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made.
Outlining the show’s new duty of care measures in September, the BBC said: “In July we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s show.
“These included a production team member present during training room rehearsals at all times; two new roles on the show dedicated to welfare support – a Celebrity Welfare Producer and a Professional Dancer Welfare Producer (both started work in August); and additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew”.
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