Strictly Come Dancing contestant Wynne Evans and his professional dance partner Katya Jones have issued a response to social media clips of Saturday night’s episode showing Jones rejecting a high-five and moving Evans’ hand away from her stomach – with Jones saying the high-five moment was them “just messaging around”.
Evans, best known for the GoCompare adverts, made the same comment in the video’s caption and stressed they “really are amazing friends”, adding that the high-fives are “a running joke”.
The scenes occurred in what’s affectionately known as the ‘Clauditorium’, where host Claudia Winkleman chats to the dancers and contestants.
Evans and Jones danced the tango to ABBA’s 'Money, Money, Money' in the fourth week of the competition, finishing second on the leaderboard with 34 points after the judges’ scores.
The highest score came from ex- Love Island contestant and deaf campaigner Tasha Ghouri, and her professional dance partner Aljaž Škorjanec, who ended up with 39 points out of a possible 40 from judges Craig Revel-Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke.
Meanwhile, Evans’ touching of Jones’ waist has been branded “uncomfortable”:
It isn’t the first time that the relationship between a celebrity and their professional partner has made headlines, as 2018 contestant Seann Walsh was seen kissing partner Jones despite having a long-term girlfriend at the time.
Cases of celebrities' real-life relationships being affected by their partnering with a professional dancer for the show has become known as the " Strictly curse" .
More recently, the BBC apologised to Sherlock star Amanda Abbington at the end of September and said it had “upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made” by her against her 2023 dance partner Giovanni Pernice , which concerned “bullying” and “aggressive behaviour” which Pernice denied.
According to BBC News , Pernice was cleared of “the most serious allegations”, with the professional dancer himself saying on Instagram that he was “happy” that “all the threatening, abusive, harassment behaviour allegations have not been upheld”.
Following Abbington ’s complaint, the BBC introduced the measure of ensuring a production team member was present during training room rehearsals “at all times” and created the roles of Celebrity Welfare Producer and Professional Dancer Welfare Producer who are “dedicated to welfare support”.
15 training room observers are in place for rehearsals who complete “daily training logs” covering breaks, warm-ups and rest periods.
Evans, Jones and the BBC have all been approached for comment .
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