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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

Jonathan Ross: ‘Seann Walsh wasn’t forced to apologise on my show after his Strictly snog, he wanted to’

Jonathan Ross has responded to Seann Walsh describing his apology on his chat show in the wake of his Strictly Come Dancing scandal the “worst moment of my life”.

In October 2018, Walsh was pictured kissing his dance partner Katya Jones, while he was in a relationship with actress Rebecca Humphries and she was married to Neil Jones, also a Strictly dancer.

The 36-year-old comedian recently recalled the experience while in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! camp and admitted he’s still “very sorry” for his behaviour.

After opening up about being on the front page of national newspapers at the time, his campmate Sue Cleaver asked: “Why did that crucify you? Why did that have such an impact?”

To which he replied: “To be totally honest, my girlfriend at the time posted a statement and that was the end of me.”

Walsh added: “I said sorry. I sat on [The Jonathan Ross Show] and apologised. I sat next to Will.i.am and Samuel L Jackson and apologised.

Walsh opened up about his Strictly Come Dancing scandal on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (ITV)

“That will forever be the weirdest moment of my life and I have to say probably the worst moment of my life.”

Reflecting on the moment four years on, chat show king Ross told The Standard at ITV Palooza: “He didn’t have to apologise on my show, he wanted to apologise on the show, so it wasn’t something we asked him or forced him to do.

“But obviously it was the first TV he had done since that whole thing so obviously I think he felt he had to deal with it and I’m glad about the way he dealt with it the way that he did.

“Obviously, it wasn’t an easy thing to do, maybe it wasn’t the right place for it?

“I don’t know but certainly we couldn’t have him on without saying that, so I tried to give him the space to say what he wanted to say.”

Having hosted The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV for 11 years now, the 62-year-old has had the opportunity to meet and chat with some of the biggest names in showbiz.

The host, 62, has interviewed the biggest names in showbiz (PA)

He added: “I’ve done so many it’s hard to remember them all. John Travolta I love, Ricky Gervais I love, Peter Kay has always been great when we’ve had him on.

Michael McIntyre is back on in a couple of weeks time. Joan Rivers I did once.

“I’ve kind of done everyone, the problem is it all runs together in my head a little bit.”

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