Strictly Come Dancing stars Wynne Evans and Katya Jones wasted no time in denying rumours they haven’t been getting on.
The Welsh opera singer, 52, and Russian pro, 35, have been impressing the judges week after week with their dance routines, having scored their highest marks yet tonight with a fierce tango.
Unfortunately for Wynne and Katya, though, their antics off the dancefloor generated more chatter than their moves on it.
Upon zooming into the pair’s interactions in the background of all the Strictly chaos, viewers became convinced there was some sort of bad blood between them.
It began as Wynne stood behind Katya with an arm around her waist while Claudia Winkleman spoke to Pete Wicks about his quickstep.
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The former Strictly champ wore a beaming smile on her face which never faltered, but subtly moved Wynne’s hand further back as it crept closer to her midriff.
Viewers also noticed Wynne’s failed attempt at securing a high-five from Katya, to which she pulled a rather unimpressed face before turning to face the camera with a grin as if nothing had happened.
Sharing the videos on X, fans of the show started speculating almost immediately, accusing Wynne of ‘inappropriate touching’ and saying he was ‘pushing it’.
Others even urged the BBC to investigate the signs, following misconduct accusations made against Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima, which have been denied by both Italian stars.
However, after the show aired, Wynne and Katya took to Instagram themselves to nip anything in the bud before it escalated further.
‘Hi, everyone. It’s Wynne and Katya here,’ they began, standing side-by-side still in their show costumes.
‘We just wanted to say we were just messing around in the Claudatorium on Saturday night and wanted to say sorry, it was a silly joke,’ Katya explained.
Wynne chimed in: ‘Yes, sorry!’
The short clip then ended as Katya grimaced and Wynne visibly cringed.
He added in his caption: ‘Apologies for this tonight we were just messing around. We really are amazing friends. The high 5’s is a running joke. Have a great evening’.
In the comments, followers expressed their support, with plenty noting how ‘great’ their relationship seems.
‘You did nothing wrong!! 😍’, wrote user kyangriffiths.
‘Glad you’ve come out straight away to get rid of the nonsense! Loved your dance tonight ❤️’, commented trahoney.
‘Honestly devastated that you both feel you have to apologise. Neither of you have done anything wrong at all. My absolute favourites from week one and your dance tonight was fantastic 😊’, added lizzie_gp12.
This isn’t the first time one of Katya’s Strictly partnerships has hit the headlines.
Last year, actor Nigel Harman denied that the so-called curse had struck their pairing, telling Metro that he ‘couldn’t be less interested’ in speculation that they were getting cosy in the rehearsal room.
And, of course, in 2018, Katya’s face was plastered all over the papers when she shared a snog with comedian Seann Walsh, both of whom were in relationships at the time.
Both stars came out with a grovelling apology afterwards, with Seann admitting the aftermath was ‘the most depressing month of [his] life’ as his career was ‘dead’.
Katya stayed with husband Neil Jones for 10 months before their eventual split after seven years of marriage.
Elsewhere in Strictly Land, rumours of there being more than dancing happening in training have been rife for years.
In recent months, however, it all came to a head when an investigation was launched.
The internal probe was fuelled by official complaints from Amanda Abbington, who accused Giovanni of ‘bullying’.
Meanwhile, Grazino was accused of kicking Love Islander Zara McDermott, to which he declared emphatically that he’s ‘not an abusive man’.
After a months-long investigation, the BBC upheld several complaints against Giovanni but cleared him of the most serious ‘physical aggression’ allegations.
Consequently, the broadcaster has vowed to crack down on abusive behaviour.
The BBC’s inquiry strives to ‘ensure the consequences of inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power are understood by everyone’.
A report is to be published next spring.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Results airs tomorrow at 7:20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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