Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Katya: We’re focused on us now
Strictly dancers tell how they’ve mended their love after scandal of street kiss
STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Neil Jones has forgiven his wife for her notorious street kiss with beardy comic Seann Walsh.
Katya, 29, Walsh’s pro dancing partner on last year’s BBC1 show, and top dancer Neil, 36, have told how they have put the past behind them.
Speaking publicly for the first time about last October’s scandal, Neil said: “My mum said, ‘people make mistakes. Don’t react, try to understand’. So that is how it always is for me.”
Katya said the fallout was “horrible”. She added: “We just had to sort it. It was quite shocking to be so exposed. We just wanted to focus on us. My first thought was for Neil.”
She told Hello! magazine: “I look at everything as a massive learning process. But drop by drop, people typing horrible and unkind things about you, does affect you. The hate I felt made me very sad. I knew I had to focus on my dancing, my choreography.”
Following the boozy kiss, Walsh, 33, who was swiftly dumped by girlfriend Rebecca Humphries, told TV’S Jonathan Ross: “I was stupid and selfish.”
Despite the scandal, Katya and Neil will star in the next run of Strictly, which kicks off in September. In June they also plan a live show – Somnium– based on their journey to be champs. Katya said: “I even get to wear the dress I wore on the evening of our wedding.” ■ Full interview in Hello! magazine, out now.