I'm A Celebrity winner Giovanna Fletcher and McFly star husband Tom have apologised for using the Government's furlough scheme, admitting they made a "huge error of judgement."
Over the weekend it was reported that the couple had received up to £30,000 from the scheme, set up to try and help businesses and employers survive during the coronavirus pandemic, to put one of their employees on furlough.
And now Giovanna and Tom have issued a joint statement, which while refuting some of the figures reported about them, saw them admit a big error on their part.
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The statement began: "Hi everyone, we’ve always had a very honest and open relationship with you all on here so we thought it was important to address questions that some of you have rightly asked us in the last 24 hours.
"This weekend there was an article in one of the Sunday papers about us using the government furlough scheme. While parts of the article were inaccurate (including all of the figures mentioned), it is true that we did follow financial advice to furlough someone we employ.”
Giovanna and Tom said that they used furlough to help an employee who "couldn’t carry out their role due to the pandemic," adding that they felt using the scheme was the best way to give the person in question stability and security.
They also admitted they should have funded the wages themselves, adding: "Although it was a time of great uncertainty, we clearly should have thought more about the situation and funded it ourselves.
“It was a huge error of judgment and a mistake we wholeheartedly take responsibility for and we have paid the full amount back."
Prior to beating bookies' favourite Jordan North in the I'm A Celebrity final in Wales in December, becoming the ITV show's first ever Queen of the Castle, Giovanna already had a huge following thanks to her highly successful podcast Happy Mum, Happy Baby.
It has seen her interview a whole host of stars including the Duchess of Cambridge and Giovanna is also a published children's author.
Tom first shot to fame in 2004 as a member of McFly, with them shooting straight to number 1 with their debut single 5 Colours in Her Hair after supporting Busted on tour.
Their many singles over the years have included more numbers 1 like Obviously, All About You, I'll Be OK and Star Girl and, to coincide with them releasing new music, they were recently on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
