What really happened with Katya Jones and Wynne Evans on Strictly?
Strictly's Katya Jones and Wynne Evans explain 'heartbreaking' truth behind viral moment
The awkward moment where Katya Jones moved Wynne Evans' hand from the middle of her waist was all everyone talked about from Strictly.
A second moment went viral of Jones rejecting Evans' high five on the same night in the Clauditorium on the BBC show.
From watching Saturday night's show, hundreds of people speculated on social media that Jones felt uncomfortable during the interactions which the professional dancer has denied and has now left her celebrity dance partner Evans feeling "heartbroken".
So what really happened? We take a look at what has been reported and what the Strictly pair have said since the moments went viral over the weekend.
Something VERY weird has happened on #Strictly tonight with Wynne and Katya.
They have now uploaded an apology video (which feels… odd, to say the least) after these two clips started going viral tonight 😬 pic.twitter.com/NiuDQWmGzS— sᴜᴘᴇʀ ᴛᴠ (@superTV247) October 12, 2024
Wynne Evans' heartbreak
Evans has said he is heartbroken by the response to the BBC show. He told BBC Wales on Monday: "I'm absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day."
Both Strictly stars have said this was a planned joke but they were sad to see the backlash from followers on social media.
As well as speaking about the moment that has sparked conversation, the Go Compare advert star also took the opportunity to speak about his "close" friendship with his professional dancer.
He said: "It's not nice to live in that time, but basically Katya and I are really, really close and we're really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke. It was a stupid joke that went wrong, OK? We thought it was funny. It wasn't funny. It was been totally misinterpreted."
They have both spoken about the incident together as well as in their own videos in the hope of sharing the truth behind what happened.
He added: "Everything's on Katya’s socials. She's talked about it. She's explained that it was a joke. She wasn't offended in the least. She doesn't feel uncomfortable. We've got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I'm sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke. And that's all there is. There is no real story, really."
Read more: Strictly Come Dancing's Wynne Evans says he's 'absolutely heartbroken' after 'misjudged' moment with Katya Jones (OK! magazine, 2-min read)
BBC's welfare team check in
Behind the scenes, the BBC's welfare team have checked in on the Strictly Come Dancing pair after two incidents from Saturday's show went viral.
In the wake of the Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice investigation, Strictly made huge changes to the duty of care package including the introduction of chaperones in the rehearsal rooms.
This included two dedicated welfare producers being assigned to the BBC show, meaning there was a celebrity welfare producer and a professional dancer welfare producer as part of the Strictly crew.
Having completed the welfare check, there are no plans for further action.
Read more: Welfare team check in on Strictly's Katya Jones and Wynne Evans after 'concerning' moment (Manchester Evening News, 2-min read)
Katya Jones defends Wynne Evans
As speculation continued over the weekend, Jones took to her own social media account to establish her truth of what happened on Saturday night. She said on Sunday: "The idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended me in any way is complete nonsense."
The professional dancer pleaded with her followers to focus on how well the couple performed at the weekend. They had impressed judges with their tango to ABBA's Money, Money, Money which got them a score of 34 out of 40. As the competition begins to get fiercer, it was the second week that Wynne had showed significant improvement.
"Happy Sunday everyone," she said in a video posted to Instagram. "Now, I need to make something crystal clear. The hand incident that happened on Saturday night was an inside - a very silly, very silly - inside joke between Wynne and I.
"So even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended me in any way is complete nonsense. It's quite absurd actually. Now, can we just focus on how brilliantly he's doing and what an amazing dancer he's becoming?"
Read more: Strictly professional Katya Jones says hand incident a 'very silly inside joke' (PA, 3-min read)
Strictly's Katya Jones and Wynne Evans' united front
Since the interaction has been shared online hundreds of times, the Strictly pair have explained it was an inside joke between the two of them.
The first thing they did was make a video which they shared on Instagram. Jones said in the Instagram video: "Hello everybody it's Wynne and Katya here. We just wanted to say we were just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke."
Wynne agreed: "Yes, sorry". He added in the 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 @katyajones."