Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas gave her support to 19-year-old Tilly Ramsay after an LBC presenter made nasty remarks about the teenager’s appearance. Shirley stepped in along with countless others to condemn the radio host’s comments against Tilly, who is the daughter of famous chef Gordon Ramsay.
On his LBC radio show, Steve Allen said: “Tilly Ramsay is on Celebrity MasterChef Australia, is she?
“Well she can’t blooming well dance – I’m bored with her already.
“She’s a chubby little thing, isn’t she? Have you noticed?
“Probably her dad’s cooking I should imagine.”
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Tilly, who is competing in this year’s Strictly with professional partner Nikita Kuzmin, was left upset by Steve’s comments about her weight.
Addressing her one million Instagram followers, she wrote a long post explaining her sadness over the remarks and also shared the clip from Steve’s show.
Under the post, Shirley wrote: “My darling, having been through this myself I hear you.
“To me you are beautiful just as you are.”
“But please remember that words can hurt and at the end of the day I am only 19 and I’m so grateful for all the amazing opportunities I have been able to take part in and I understand that being in the public eye obviously comes with it’s own repercussions and I’ve been aware of this from a young age.
“However I won’t tolerate people that think its okay to publicly comment and scrutinise anyone’s weight and appearance. Love Tilly xx”.
Plenty of Tilly’s Strictly co-stars reached out to her, including Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite.
He wrote: “He’s a piece of old sandpaper love, worn and used and has nothing to offer the world.