Piers Morgan has backed Seann Walsh and Katya Jones to remain in Strictly Come Dancing following their kiss drama, and said he hopes they can “rise above the fray”.
Comedian Walsh and professional dancer Jones, who is married to another dancer on the programme, have both apologised for making a mistake after being pictured in The Sun kissing in on a night out.
Walsh has since been publicly dumped by his girlfriend Rebecca Humphries.
Speculation has mounted that the pair may quit the series before Saturday night’s episode, amid rumours the programme’s bosses want them to leave.
But the pair have received backing from Morgan, who said he will make the effort to watch the programme because it will be “fantastically awkward” and that he “can’t wait to watch them dance”.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain during a debate over whether Walsh and Jones should pull out of the series, Morgan said: “So one drunken snog is going to ruin everything for them?
“Is that now the barometer for them?”
He said that Jones’s husband, dancer Neil Jones, appears to have “accepted what happened as a mistake” and that Walsh “wasn’t married”.
Morgan said: “I hope they come through the storm, I hope they do a fantastic performance, and I hope they rise above the fray.”
He added: “It’s just a dance show, nobody’s dead.”
One word… @SeannWalsh and @Mrs_katjones: EPIC 🤯 #Strictly pic.twitter.com/eB1MnGm3ao
— BBC Strictly✨ (@bbcstrictly) October 6, 2018
His co-host Susanna Reid, who had previously defended the pair and said that it was “just a kiss”, said that Humphries’s public statement “changed everything”.
Humphries, a theatre and TV actress, had said in a statement on Twitter that she was “not a victim”, thanking people for their support and revealing that the pictures were taken last week on her birthday while she was home alone.
She said that “his actions over the last three weeks had led to believe something inappropriate was going on”, and that he denied it, repeatedly calling her “psycho/nuts/mental”.
— Rebecca Humphries (@Beckshumps) October 8, 2018
Humphries, who had been in the audience last weekend to support Walsh and Jones, added: “But – this whole business has served to remind me that I am a strong, capable person who is now free; and no victim.
“I have a voice and will use it by saying this to any woman out there who deep down feels worthless and trapped with a man they love:
“Believe in yourself and your instincts. It’s more than lying. It’s controlling.
“Tell some very close friends who, if they’re anything like my wonderful network, will swoop in and take care of the logistics and of you.
“It’s important also to recognise that in these situations those who hold power over you are insecure and fragile, and their need for control comes from a place of vulnerability.
“I think it certainly does in Seann’s case. Despite everything, I hope he gets what he wants from this. I’m not sorry I took the cat though.”
The photographs published at the weekend showed Walsh and Jones locking lips and dancing in the street on a night out, with an onlooker claiming they were “snogging like a pair of teenagers”.