Strictly Come Dancing star Katya Jones has found herself hitting the headlines once again.
The professional dancer, 35, has been at the centre of another debacle to hit the BBC dancing competition over the weekend. It came after partner Wynne Evans appeared to make her feel uncomfortable with a misplaced hand during a chat with the couples on Saturday night (October 12).
Since then, both Katya and Wynne have clarified this was a joke, with Wynne going on to apologise for the offense he may have caused as a result of incident. However, this is not the first time that Katya has made waves behind the scenes of the show.
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So, as the drama with Wynne continues to develop, Daily Star looks at some of Katya’s other high-profile scandals from Strictly.
Seann Walsh kiss
Katya’s most well-known controversy came in 2018 when she was papped smooching comedian Seann Walsh. The incident happened, despite being married to hubby and Strictly co-star Neil.
The pair were caught canoodling outside a pub in London on his then-girlfriend Rebecca Humphries’ birthday. Witnesses who had seen the couple get steamy on the street described them as “snogging like a pair of teenagers”.
In the wake of the incident, Rebecca dumped Seann through an iconic public statement that left Seann licking his wounds. Katya and Seann would go on to apologise for the kiss on spin-off show, It Takes Two – but fans refused to believe it.
Divorce from Neil
At the time of her kiss with Seann, she had supposedly been happily married to Neil Jones, who had earned a reputation as the loveable rogue of the professionals at the time. Defending their relationship, Katya apologised to everyone, but especially to Neil saying: “The main thing, me and Neil are absolutely fine and that’s what matters to me the most right now and focusing on my job and doing it as professionally I can.”
Initially, the couple had reconciled following the scandal, with the pair opting to work through things together. But in 2019, one year on after the incident, the couple announced they would be divorcing and cutting ties after 11 years together.
In a joint statement, they revealed they had no bad blood between them as a result of the “kiss-gate” furore, but instead that they just felt out of romantic love together. “No matter what we do we will always support and respect each other,” they wrote – with a spokesperson making it clear that the scandal had not been responsible for the demise of the marriage.
Forcing Nicola Adams to withdraw
In the eighteenth series of the show, Olympic boxer Nicola Adams made history by being coupled with Katya to become the first same-sex couple in the show’s history. However, things were soon stalled after Nicola was forced to pull out of the show after Katya was testing positive for Covid.
Katya was forced to self-isolate for 10 days during the height of the pandemic. Nicola, despite testing negative for the condition, was still told to self-isolate for two weeks after being in direct contact with the dancer.
Nicola took to her social media to admit she was “absolutely devastated” to be leaving the show, but praised Katya for being able to push her out of her comfort zone. Katya herself said she was “heartbroken” by the decision, but dubbed Nicola “her hero” as she shared a candid snap of the two.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk