Strictly scandal deepens as footage showing ex-pro telling partner he will 'kill her' emerges
17 July 2024, 20:14 | Updated: 18 July 2024, 07:00
The scandal surrounding Strictly Come Dancing has deepened after footage showing a former professional dancer telling his celebrity partner "kill you" surfaced on social media.
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Video posted on TikTok shows former pro James Jordan telling partner Georgina Bouzova: "I drag you across the floor and then scream when you get up."
Another clip shows Jordan telling the camera: "I will push her to her limit. She will go through that pain, and as far as I’m concerned, tough luck. Unless she’s actually physically broken a rib, I don’t care. Unless her feet are bleeding I don’t care, if they are sore, dance through it."
The footage was filmed during a training session and shown on Strictly spin off It Takes Two during the 2006 series.
Jordan later claimed the video had been taken out of context, saying producers "thought it would be fun to put this VT together in the way they did".
He added: "You can see Georgina laughing about it in the studio and in the clips."
The ex-Strictly pro said he was painted as the bad guy during his time on the show and played along but would never "deliberately upset anyone".
It comes after Strictly executives yesterday confirmed celebrity participants will have chaperones in all future rehearsals after misconduct claims against two professional dancers.
The BBC show will also introduce two dedicated welfare producers as they seek to toughen up safeguarding measures.
Strictly introduced the measures after it was announced that professional dancers Graziano Di Prima and Giovanni Pernice will not return for the show's next season after the pair were accused of misconduct.
The show's executives are also understood to be looking into a "third person of interest" as part of an investigation into the behaviour of the professional dancers.
The footage also shows Jordan telling Bouzova he thinks she should lose weight.
"Basically, he thinks I'm a bit of a porker," Bouzova tells the camera.
Jordan responds: "I said no chocolate, no crisps. Every time I see you, you're eating chocolate."
When Bouzova asks Jordan if he thinks she looks fat, he says "no" but asked if she "could do with losing a bit of...", Jordan says "yes".
Jordan also calls Bouzova a "lazy cow" and says "come on fat belly" while getting the actress to do sit ups during training.
Bouzova later claimed Jordan only allowed her to buy pineapple and ham when they went to a supermarket together.
Jordan left Strictly in 2012 after appearing in eight series.
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Graziano Di Prima had his contract terminated last week after a meeting with Strictly bosses, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The 30-year-old was due to appear on the upcoming series until being contacted by the programme’s executives, who wanted to question him about his behaviour, with one show source saying: “Graziano had to go. It has been awful.”
The complaint about Di Prima was made recently and prompted the BBC to extend the inquiry that was ongoing over claims that another former professional, Giovanni Pernice, had bullied his partner Amanda Abbington during training.
Meanwhile Pernice was accused of adopting "militant" training methods for his celebrity partners.
Three of Pernice’s former partners on the show - Laura Whitmore, Michelle Visage and Abbington - have allegedly all contacted a legal firm with complaints about him.
