Katya Jones and Wynne Evans looked tense as they walked to Strictly Come Dancing training on Tuesday.
The dance couples spent the week defending their awkward exchange during Saturday night’s live show, when viewers watched the moment Katya pushed Wynne’s hand away from her waist and rejected his attempt to high-five her.
The opera singer, 52, and his professional dance partner, 35, have been hard at work this week as they defended the interaction, but on Tuesday they looked far from their usual bubbly mood.
With tension on their faces, neither Katya nor Wynne cracked a smile as they walked to their training studio in Wales.
Katya Jones and Wynne Evans looked tense as they walked to the Strictly Come Dancing training studio in Wales on Tuesday.
The dance couples spent the week defending their awkward exchange during Saturday’s live show, when viewers watched the moment Katya pushed Wynne’s hand away from her waist.
The appearance comes hours after the couple made an emotional appearance on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two.
Katya He has defended his famous partner, declaring that he has been “portrayed as someone he is not”, while the pair insist their “wandering hand” incident was a silly prank.
In Monday night’s television appearance, Wynne He admitted that he had seen footage of the incident and confessed: “I can see how people may have misinterpreted it.”
Clinging to his arm, Katya said she “can’t stand” the criticism her co-star is receiving and was sympathetic that there was no crime.
She said: “The idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is complete nonsense, and to those who have doubts, you have been wrong.” So I hope this is the end and you continue to make me smile.”
She added: “I can’t sit by and watch this man being portrayed as someone he’s not.” In fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
“So I have to make it absolutely clear that this whole incident, with the handshake and the high five on Saturday night, was an inside joke between Wynne and I. Was it a dumb joke? Yes, it was a sick joke.” taste? Yes.’
The incident caused such concern among BBC top brass, who have spent months quelling allegations of misconduct in previous series, that a welfare inquiry was carried out.
The opera singer and his professional dance partner have been hard at work this week, championing interaction (pictured on Saturday).
They looked far from their usual cheerful selves Tuesday as they walked to a dance studio.
A source said: ‘The Strictly Welfare team reviewed the couple individually to confirm nothing was wrong and they were both comfortable continuing with the partnership.
“Training room investigators have kept meticulous records of what happens during rehearsals between each celebrity couple, and Wynne and Katya are no different.”
‘If there had been any type of misconduct or cause for concern, it would have been flagged by the social care team.
“There has not been one and they consider the matter closed.”
The BBC confirmed that no further action is planned.
Wynne, who has starred in GoCompare adverts for more than a decade, claims the fallout left him “heartbroken” after some Strictly fans called for him to be booted from the show.
Showing the tension on their faces, neither Katya nor Wynne cracked a smile.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, where he presents a daily show, Evans said: “I am absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.
He said: ‘I am absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.
The duo had surprisingly become favorites to win this year’s Strictly, scoring 34 out of 40 points from the judges for their tango on Saturday.
“It’s not nice to live in that time, but basically Katya and I are very, very close and very 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 misunderstood.
‘It’s all on Katya’s social media. She has talked about it. She explained that it was a joke. She wasn’t offended in the slightest. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable.
The appearance comes hours after the couple made an emotional appearance on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two.
“We have a brilliant friendship, an absolutely close friendship, and I’m sorry if anyone was offended by it, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is, there’s really no real story.”
“And I feel weird apologizing because I feel like I haven’t really done anything.”
He agreed he had “misjudged” him when interviewed on Radio Wales Breakfast before starting his own show on the station, and confirmed he was “absolutely still prepared for” Strictly.
He said: ‘I’m having the time of my life. “I just don’t want this to be what people remember.”
On Sunday, Evans and Jones posted a video on Instagram saying they were “just playing at the ‘Clauditorium’ the night before and just wanted to say sorry.” It was a stupid joke.’
And responding to several X users, formerly Twitter, the dancer said: ‘You got our joke!’
While the dancing duo talked about whatever secret romance was going on behind the scenes in a recent interview, Wynne randomly directed the question to Katya.
At another point on Saturday night, Jones seemed reluctant to high-five his famous partner.
A caption alongside his video explained that “high fives are a running joke.”
But viewers of Sunday night’s results show were not convinced by the explanation, claiming they had seen Jones apparently ‘glaring’ at his famous partner.
During the show, Claudia asked Evans how he was feeling and noticed that he seemed surprised.
Wynne responded: “I’m in shock because I didn’t think I would survive the first week, so to be here after having done a tango is really exciting.”
“And I had a great time and thanks to Katya’s clever choreography.”
When Evans gave his response, fans noticed that Katya remained impassive and even appeared to grimace as the opera singer evaluated her performance.
The duo had surprisingly become favorites to win this year’s Strictly, scoring 34 out of 40 from the judges for their tango on Saturday.
Escorts have been installed on Strictly during rehearsals this year after the BBC launched a review after Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington complained about her 2023 professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice.
The BBC apologized to Abbington and said: “We have assessed the complaints and have confirmed some, but not all, of the complaints raised.”
Pernice has always denied the allegations and said he was “happy” after the investigation cleared him of most abuse allegations.
Outlining the programme’s new duty of care measures in September, the BBC said: ‘In July, we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s programme.
‘These included a member of the production team present during rehearsals in the training room at all times; two new roles on the show dedicated to social support: a social welfare producer for celebrities and a social welfare producer for professional dancers (both started work in August); and additional training for professional dancers, production team and crew.
