James Jordan has hit back at speculation he is involved in the ongoing Strictly investigation.
Strictly Come Dancing has been hit with scandal after scandal following claims of abuse and misconduct by some of the professional stars. James, 46, is now another pro that has been dragged into the investigation – though he strongly denies the allegations made against him.
The former professional dancer was brought into the Strictly Come Dancing debacle after old footage surfaced of the star berating his celebrity partner. Jordan, who starred in the show from 2006 to 2013, was seen on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two branding his partner Georgina Bouzova a “lazy cow”, calling her “fat belly”.
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In the clip, which has resurfaced over the last few days, James is seen hurling insults at the actress, before proceeding to throw a chair. However, James has hit back at the clip, saying that the video was “heavily edited together” and was broadcast on It Takes Two “for the purposes of entertainment”.
(Image: BBC)
Taking to his Instagram account on Wednesday (July 17), the ex-Celebrity Big Brother housemate penned: “For those of you who have seen the edited BBC VT of me training with Georgina 18 years ago – yes I had hair once!! But I just wanted to reassure you that footage was shot and edited together by the BBC team for transmission on It Takes Two 18 years ago in specific ways for the purposes of ENTERTAINMENT.”
He added: “Many of the clips were not related to Georgina at all (they are not allowed to do that these days as it misrepresents what actually happened) but were included for the purpose of exaggeration. The BBC thought it would be fun to put this VT together in the way they did.”
James went on to say that Georgina was seen several times laughing about the chaos in the clip, before stating that he has “never received ANY complaints” from his celebrity dance partners. He added that had he been abusive to any of his partners, the BBC would not allow the clip to be broadcast in such a way.
(Image: BBC)
“The Producers loved to paint me as the bad guy and I played along, always a perfectionist – but I would never have deliberately upset anyone and pride myself on good friendships with my celebrity dance partners,” he said. “I strongly suggest that nobody attempts to link this edited BBC VT with the current alleged reports of abusive behaviour taking place behind the scenes by other Strictly professionals.”
He finished off the post by saying that he is strongly against bullying or abuse in any workplace environment. It comes as a third Strictly professional was linked to the ongoing probe into the show.
(Image: Rex)
The unnamed dancer is no longer a part of the show, but adds to the growing number of professionals with claims of abuse made against them, including Graziano di Prima and Giovanni Pernice. Graziano was fired from the show and has moved back to Sicily to become a farm labourer, while Giovanni strongly denies the allegations made against him.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
