X Factor’s Danyl Johnson has opened up about the moment Dannii Minogue made a bad taste joke about the singer’s sexuality on live television in 2009.
Johnson was a frontrunner on the sixth season of the hit talent competition when the judge made a joke about his sexual orientation.
Speaking with Metro, Johnson reflected on the incident. The singer called it an "honest mistake” and declared that Minogue is a “fricking gay icon”.
In the controversial moment, Minogue had applauded Johnson’s performance of Jennifer Hudson’s single “And I’m Telling You” for “turning a girl’s song into a guy’s song”. Johnson had changed the line of Hudson’s song from: “You’re the best man I’ve ever known” to “best girl”.
Minogue went on to say, “But if we’re to believe everything we hear in the paper, maybe you didn’t need to change the gender reference in it.”
Johnson had previously spoken to press about having relationships with both men and women.
Many, however, thought Minogue’s comments were in bad taste. Nearly 4,000 Ofcom complaints were filed over the remark.
“I went and saw Dannii the next day, and she was just in tears,” said Johnson. “People were saying stuff on Twitter, lucky enough Twitter was like, one year old so you wouldn’t be getting away with that s*** now.”
He defended the Australian singer, saying, “It might have been a bit embarrassing. It might have not been needed, but it wasn’t done in malice.”
Johnson concluded, “She wasn’t doing it to be horrible, she wasn’t doing it to be homophobic.
“It might have come across that way but it wasn’t intentional, and she apologised and I accepted the apology. Done.”
