Gareth Gates, who also appeared in the video, has replied to the uproar when Matt Hancock did a shirtless dance beside a swimming pool soon before shooting Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The former MP recorded the series in October of last year, right before his appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, when he came third.
His frequent performances on primetime reality TV haven’t gone over well with everyone, especially considering he allegedly received £45,000 from SAS: Who Dares Wins and £400,000 from I’m A Celebrity.
The Channel 4 show’s stars were sleeping in a hotel just before entering the basic camp in the jungle of Thung Ui in North Vietnam for the tough training performed by former Special Forces personnel.
Hancock, Gareth, Montana Brown, and Michelle Heaton entertained themselves by learning a routine to Lizzo’s 2 Be Loved. All four appear virtually in time as they toss their arms in the air, with Hancock, 44, displaying his slightly erratic dancing abilities.
Montana, the Love Island star, posted the video, which was widely condemned.
Comments included: ‘Matt Hancock trying to be likeable and relatable is the biggest ick of 2023’ and ‘I’d have kept that in the archive to be honest, MH really isn’t someone you should be proud of doing trends with’.
Speaking out for the first time since the backlash Gareth, 39, said: ‘It was a very innocent thing. That was the first time we were all together, and it was a bit of a bonding session.
‘I appreciate why people think it was a bit distasteful, but all of us were thrown into the show and we had no idea who was going to be there,’ he explained.
While speaking at the series launch Gareth said: ‘We all treated Matt the same way we treat everybody else.’
Although he also admitted he now finds the video ’embarrassing’.
Not everyone was against the social media post. One person shared: ‘Think people need to move on. It’s been 3 years. Everyone broke a covid rule at some point, everyone is human, it was a pandemic that hasn’t happened in the last 100 years so the government didn’t know what to do….like everyone else’.
After violating Covid social distancing regulations, the disgraced former Health Secretary resigned from Boris Johnson’s cabinet in 2021.
In government offices, the married father-of-three was observed kissing a coworker, Gina Coladangelo.
While Hancock’s inclusion in the lineup was unexpected given his contentious background, Michelle, a former Liberty X member, said they sought to treat him as an equal.
The 44-year-old said: ‘How he handled things had to be left at the door. We’re all [the cast] quite similar nice people, and we judge people the way they treated us.
‘I’ve got to say he treated me with the utmost respect from the moment that I met him.’
Danielle Lloyd, a model and TV personality, did not like his nasty attitude at the dinner table.
Watch Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins on Channel 4 from September 26.
