The BBC has responded after former Strictly Come Dancing star Danny John-Jules claimed that the show was partially responsible for the bullying allegations.

During the 2018 series, tabloid reports suggested that John-Jules had been warned by show bosses over "bullying" behaviour towards his professional partner Amy Dowden. These claims were denied by Amy at the time.

In a new interview with Metro, John-Jules accused the BBC of not stepping in and instead helping to 'create the stories'. The BBC responded by denying the claims and calling them "categorically untrue".



BBC

"If the BBC heard something that wasn't true, why didn't they say, 'That's not true'? If it's not true, say it's not true. If you don't defend me, that's your business. If you do defend me, that's your business," John-Jules said.



"The BBC never said it wasn't true... They created the stories."

The former Death in Paradise star pointed to the week that he avoided the dance-off despite having the lowest score.

"Immediately that spells danger for the production because they're like, 'My god, we can't even get him out if he's at the bottom'," he said. "That's why you started seeing bad stories, darling, because they knew they couldn't get me out with the audience."

"This claim is categorically untrue," a BBC spokesperson said to Digital Spy.

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The 2019 series is not far off, with the full line-up recently confirmed.

Strictly Come Dancing is back later this year on BBC One.



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