After referring to Holly Willoughby as a “perv” during his participation on Sunday night’s Dancing on Ice, Jay McGuiness sparked quite a commotion with his remarks.
Holly, who is 42 years old, approached the singer, who is 32 years old, to have a conversation. The singer was sitting in the crowd to see his The Wanted bandmate Siva Kaneswaran compete in the series.
Referencing Siva, Holly said: ‘He keeps saying he can’t dance but we all saw those hips tonight’, to which Jay responded: ‘You perv.’
It appeared to be a joke, and although Holly appeared to be first a bit confused, she quickly seemed to glide over the statement as Jay continued to explain how “proud” he was of bandmate Siva for exceeding the judge’s expectations on the night in question.
Another hilarious and unforgettable scene from the programme that took place last night was when host Phillip Schofield made fun of Joey Essex after the latter tried to kiss Vanessa Bauer while they were performing.
Fans of Holly, who hosts This Morning and Dancing on Ice, were outraged by Jay’s remark and rushed to Twitter to vent their frustrations. Fans of Jay, on the other hand, believed his remark added to the show’s overall level of entertainment.
One said: ‘Holly not too impressed at being called a perv by Jay McGuiness, and rightly so! He was well out of order #dancingonice’ while another wrote: ‘Wow, when did it become ok to say things like that?’
But others thought it was just a knee-jerk joke, as one person added: ‘Okay @JayMcGuiness calling Holly a perv has made this episode so much better.’
The Wanted’s official page seemed to agree with this verdict, as they said: ‘@jaymcguiness Ladies & Gentlemen.’
he singer took to Instagram to confront the haters, one of whom called him a p****, saying he didn’t want to ‘dramatise’ what was just a ‘joke’ but he thought it good to talk about.
Jay went on to explain how he believed his reaction was appropriate as a “commentary” on the manner in which Holly submitted the question after he saw Holly’s remark as a “big saucy question.”
‘I didn’t know what she was going to ask and I responded, “You perv”, as a commentary on that sort of weird – why would she ask me that?’ he said.
‘In real life, Holly, the gorgeous babe, wouldn’t be like, “Jay, what do you think about Siva’s hips?”.’
Jay admitted he didn’t want to make anyone or Holly ‘feel uncomfortable’, before he added: ‘I don’t think she did, is my intuition.’
He continued: ‘I do have to recognise that lots of people don’t see the world the way I do, and I try to assume the best of people.
‘Like I assume that everyone’s on a level where they’re just trying to enjoy life and have a little bit of fun with each other, and be kind to each other.’
He noted people might have different ‘boundaries’ and ‘limits’ to him, and doesn’t want anything to think he was being ‘mean or rude’.
‘I’m f****** here for cancel culture. If people want to talk about, “Hey, that is why this may be uncomfortable” then you can start a conversation,’ he said.
Dancing on Ice airs Sundays on ITV.