Strictly Come Dancing favourite Jay McGuiness, 28, said there are some trysts which occur on the show which go undiscovered by fans. “I don’t think it’s happening any more than people think,” he told Express.co.uk. “I just think that stuff that is printed and the stuff that happens aren’t aligned. Often things happen which no one hear about, which people on the ground hear about,” he spilled.
“And often, things are put in papers that are completely off the mark,” Jay added.
“So, sometimes you’ll read it and go, ‘Oh, that’s true,’ and sometimes you’ll read and it’s just complete fiction!”
The so-called Strictly ‘curse’ has long been the subject of speculation, with a series of high-profile romances being borne out of celebrities’ time on the show.
However, Jay insisted the dialogue surrounding the ‘curse’ is easily discounted as “playground-level gossip”, saying: “When it comes to the discussion around it, that will always go down to playground-level gossip.
“But the show itself is never going to change because the BBC are so consistent in that they’re not going to play to that.
“They just do the dancing, film the rehearsals and that’s it,” he said.
“Everything else is up to us, as people watching, what we take from it.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to transform into Love Island because the BBC know what they’re making,” the Strictly Come Dancing 2015 champion explained.
“I think it will never become Love Island because the TV show isn’t necessarily about what who thinks of who.
“Everyone is there with 12 weeks, trying to learn to dance and everyone is trying to come across well,” he continued. “No one wants to go on there and come off thinking that they were awful; no one wants to go on there and be bullied by a mean judge.
“Everyone’s trying to do the best version of themselves.”
Meanwhile, Jay McGuiness also discussed the “uncomfortable” issue with replacing Strictly’s Darcey Bussell, 49, who stepped down from the judging panel earlier this year.
He said he wouldn’t be following in the footsteps of former Strictly winner Alesha Dixon, 40, by becoming a judge himself, saying:”It’s really uncomfortable learning a skill from experts — and when you get on the show, you know how expert the pros are — and then to go back and judge them is a very difficult position to be in.”
Later this year, Jay will be starring in BIG The Musical for a limited nine-week season at the Dominion Theatre in London.
“This is not a boyband life anymore,” the ex-Wanted star quipped. “It’s eight shows a week.”
Jay McGuiness stars in BIG the Musical at London’s Dominion Theatre from 6 September to 2 November 2019. For more information, visit: https://www.bigthemusical.co.uk/.
Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year to BBC One.