Katya Jones and Wynne Evans have seemingly reacted to the viral ‘hand incident’ joke on Strictly Come Dancing.
The Russian dancer, 35, shared a statement earlier this week, addressing an 'awkward' interaction with her Strictly partner Evans, 52, the opera singer from the GoCompare adverts.
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The moment came when Jones appeared to move Evans' hand away from her midriff during a live segment on the BBC dancing series last week.
However, the two friends made it clear to fans that they were 'just messing around', calling it a 'silly joke'.
In a second statement on Instagram, Jones said: "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 in any way is complete nonsense. It’s actually absurd.
"So let’s focus on how brilliantly Wynne Evans is doing and what an amazing dancer he’s becoming."
Taking to social media, 2023 Celebrity MasterChef winner Evans also added: "Apologies for this tonight we were just messing around.
"We really are amazing friends. The high 5s is a running joke. Have a great evening."
Last night (19 October), the pair made their return to the BBC show, performing the quickstep to 'Mr. Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra.
Before they were awarded 33 points by the judges, the pair appeared to acknowledged their 'silly joke'.
While Claudia Winkleman spoke to them about their dance choices, Jones told Evans: "This really suits your personality, doesn’t it? Timing, yes. But the comedy. Yeah, you love all the comedy."
With a smile, Evans responded: "Yeah, I love comedy."
Everyone started laughing, seemingly acknowledging what had gone on in the past week.
Meanwhile, the singer said he was 'heartbroken' over the speculation about his behaviour.
He told BBC Radio Wales: "I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.
"It’s not nice to live in that time, but basically Katya and I are really, really close and we’re really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke.
"It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.
"We’ve got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I’m sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is, there is no real story, really."
The BBC said no further action is planned.
Topics: Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity
Anish Vij