Adam Peaty was put on the spot on live TV on Thursday over a claim his mum made online that his exit from Strictly Come Dancing was a 'fix.'
After being an early favourite to win this year once the line-up was confirmed, Olympic swimming champion Adam found himself in the dance-off for the second time at the weekend, alongside professional partner Katya Jones.
Adam and Katya found themselves bottom of the leaderboard on Saturday night's Strictly after a few too many mistakes in their Jive.
Unfortunately for them, their score of 27 out of 40 wasn't enough to keep them out of trouble.
And, after they had to battle against Tilly and Nikita to stay in the competition, three out of four judges opted to send them home, with only Shirley Ballas voting to save Adam.
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Having been a big fan favourite, many people reacted badly to Adam's exit, none more so than his mum Caroline, who, moments after credits rolled on the results show, tweeted: "Proud @adam_peaty and @Mrs_katjones such an amazing partnership and @Mrs_katjones you have taught my baby boy how to dance, thank you. Total fix and I’m not buying the public vote."
Adam was quizzed on his mum's post when he appeared on Thursday's BBC Breakfast to promote his new book.
He replied: "I agree with you, mums are always going to support their own. She wanted to see me every Saturday night – you know how mums get, bless her.
“I love her to bits, she loves me to bits. I think she just wanted me to do a Paso, that’s all she wanted to see me do.”
BBC presenter Naga Munchetty then asked Adam whether he’d “had word" with his mum, l to which he said: “Well, yeah… yeah, but you know, again, it is the way it is, isn’t it? I don’t want to censor anyone. She’s got her thoughts and I’ve got mine, and my thought is the most important one to me."
Caroline's tweet got plenty of support from Strictly fans, with one telling her: "I agree, the result did seem to be a fix. No way did they deserve to go out this week."
Another reacted: "People paying to vote - I feel there should be transparency. Where are the details of the public vote?" and Caroline herself added: "I believe in fairness, it’s frustrating when you can see from the start that it isn’t, that is all"
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