Piers Morgan defends Gemma Collins, accuses Jason Gardiner of 'body-shaming'

Gemma Collins shocked Dancing on Ice viewers on Sunday night when she told judge Jason Gardiner to ‘shut up’ and ‘stop selling stories on me.’ And a rather unlikely ally has emerged in her defence: none other than Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan.

Morgan has accused Gardiner of body-shaming the TOWIE star, and says that Collins has a right to be angry at the judge’s feedback.

“You know what? I think they’ve been very mean to her. They put her on the show knowing she’s probably not going to be that great, and now they’ve been sort of taunting her and ridiculing her,” Morgan said on Good Morning Britain.

And while Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield had previously accused Collins of being ‘unprofessional,’ after turning up to rehearsals, Morgan now thinks Gardiner is the one worthy of such a label.

“During the competition, trashing her the way he did, I think was completely unprofessional.You shouldn’t be abusive to people you’ve asked to take part in your show.

“On Britain’s Got Talent, we had all sorts of contestants but if you invite people to take part in your show and compete, don’t go to national papers during the competition and bury them the way that he did,” he explained.

Morgan is referring to an interview Gardiner gave The Sun over the weekend. His scathing comments about Collins included calling her lazy, mediocre and ‘everything that’s wrong with entertainment.’

The GMB host went on to say he admires the reality star, and felt sorry for the ‘body-shaming’ she has received from Gardiner.

“I admire her, already she’s doing that better than I could do,” he said.

“All that stuff about ‘we’re not going to see big lifts’, what he means is, you’re overweight is that he’s saying to her. He’s body-shaming her, he’s abusing her. I don’t know her, I’ve met her a couple of times and she strikes me as an entertaining reality star, but she’s giving it everything she’s got.

“I admire the attempt to try and be better than she clearly is and for Jason Gardiner to be burying her in the press in the week I think it completely wrong,” he continued.

Morgan isn’t the only daytime TV host to come out firmly on Collins side. Both ITV’s Lorraine Kelly and The Sun’s Dan Wootton have come out as proud #teamcollins supporters.

Dancing on Ice continues on Sunday on ITV.

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