Strictly's Wynne Evans shares honest view on experience after controversial incidents

Edinburgh Live

25-05-2025

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Opera singer Wynne Evans has hit back at BBC executives who accused him of using "misogynist" language during a Strictly Come Dancing photocall. Wynne, who rose to fame after being cast as the face of the Go Compare TV ads, said the entire experience had been "heartbreaking."
Wynne says he now realises that Strictly isn't for everyone, and he's spoken to a number of other competitors who had struggled on Strictly: "I loved the dancing part, and I did do really well but the rest of it wasn't right for me with my personality and with depression. It wasn't the right thing."
Wynne's biggest problem related show came after he was accused of using a vulgar sexual term in reference to pro dancer Janette Manrara – triggering a four-month-long controversy which, he says, has resulted in him being placed on a round-the-clock suicide watch by an NHS crisis team.
(Image: PA)
He told The Sun: "I wouldn't use that word and it's very difficult for the BBC because, historically, and by their own admission they've got it very, very wrong. So now they have to investigate everything, and they have to be seen to investigate everything."
It was alleged that, as he stood with Janette and fellow-competitor Jamie Borthwick, Wynne referred to a "spit-roast" – an expression used to describe group sex. The 53-year-old singer maintains that his words were misinterpreted.
He explained: "Spit-roast boy was a nickname we all gave Jamie Borthwick because he could contort his legs over his head like a spit-roast chicken."
(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
He insists that there was no intended sexual undertone to the conversation, and that the fact that he had specifically said "spit-roast boy" made it clear that he was speaking to James, and not to Janette.
However, two weeks after the photo shoot, Wynne began to receive dozens of calls from his agent and BBC executives demanding an explanation for what he had said. He says that his first mistake was to apologise for any misunderstanding – which was seized upon as an admission of guilt.
"The press team issued a statement," he said. "When I read the apology within the context of the story as it had been written, I was absolutely horrified."
(Image: Katya Jones/Instagram)
He added: "The apology always makes it look worse. It validates the story." Within 48 hours of the original story running, Wynne was suspended by the BBC and dropped from the Strictly tour.
To make matters worse for Wynne, he had been caught on camera sliding his hand around the waist of his professional dance partner, Katya Jones, in a way that made him appear to be a "sex pest."
He now says that the move was part of a "body language experiment" initiated by Katya, and after viewers reacted he was instructed to make a video explaining what had happened.
Wynne claims that the initial video he made, which explained his actions fully, was dropped by BBC bosses of brewing "too long," but a shorter, simpler explanation made him come across as a "weirdo."
A third controversy, which Wynne says was simply a somewhat immature bit of backstage banter that got out of hand, saw him buying a sex toy for his soap star pal Jamie: "Obviously, in the light of everything else, it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do," he admitted.
Wynne says that he feels wronged by BBC bosses, saying: "Personally I don't think I was due an investigation." He says it would be up to BBC director-general Tim Davie whether the corporation were ever to apologise to him.
He concedes that in a rapidly-changing world he "may have got it wrong on occasion," but would have been happy to attend any re-education course the BBC asked him to go on. He says he hadn't been given that opportunity and that all he can do now is concentrate on doing his job.
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