A former Strictly Come Dancing pro has spoken out after a clip of him appearing to call his dance partner “fat” went viral.
Gillingham-born dancer James Jordan was on the show from 2006 to 2013, and was paired up with actress Georgina Bouzova for his first season.
In the resurfaced clip, he calls her a “lazy cow” and says “unless she’s physically broken her ribs, I don’t care”.
But the ballroom dancer has hit back at the resurfaced video which he says was shot and edited by the BBC “for the purposes of entertainment”.
He explained: “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.
“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.
“You can see Georgina laughing about it in the studio and in the clips…and I have never received ANY complaints from any of my celebrity dance partners in the eight years I was on the show.
“Obviously if I had genuinely upset anyone, that footage would never have been allowed to be used in that way by the BBC themselves.
“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.”
It comes after Strictly pro Graziano Di Prima was axed from the show after claims of “gross misconduct”.
Allegations have been made that he “kicked and hit” his former dance partner Zara McDermott in last years series.
But James, who now lives in Sevenoaks with his wife Ola, says “no comparison” should be drawn between the incidents.
He added: “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.”
“There is no comparison to be drawn between those awful allegations and the highly produced and exaggerated VT from the BBC archives that is featuring on social media.
“To be clear, I deplore bullying or abusiveness in the workplace”