Dancing On Ice contestant Sam Attwater has spoken out about his relationship with partner Brianne Delcourt after judge Jason Gardiner declared their romance was ‘grubby’.
The former Eastenders star was accused of ‘faking’ a relationship after he was papped kissing married skater Alexandra Shauman despite appearing in several magazine shoots declaring he and Brianne were an item.
Judge Jason Gardiner told The News of The World this weekend that he was unconvinced by the pair’s romance, declaring: “I think it’s quite grubby.”
But Sam has told this week’s issue of Heat magazine, who he had Brianne posed for just last month, that the couple were in a genuine relationship and have now split up.
He insisted: “When we did the interview, Brianne and I were together, but now we’re not. Everything we said was true.
“We broke up after the Heat shoot, actually. We knew it would be great and we loved doing it, but we thought the skating might get ignored among all the press about our romance, so we decided to slow down.
“I want to clear this up. There are people who think we’re fakes and that I’m a marriage wrecker! You deserve an explanation. I never kissed Alex Schauman. It was a joke!”
Sam insisted that he had pretended to lean in to kiss Alex as a ‘trick’ when the pair were larking around on a night out, but pulled away at the last second.
He said: “As soon as I saw the pictures, Brianne and I went straight round to see Alex and Lukasz [Alex’s husband] and we all laughed about it!”
Sam is one of the favourites to win the ITV show after Kerry Katona was voted off at the weekend.