JAMES Jordan has hit out at Strictly and appeared to take swipes at celebrities complaining about their time on the show.
It comes as the ex-Strictly professional was flooded with support following an unearthed video of him in rehearsals.
Footage showed him fat shaming his dance partner, which he last night insisted was edited together for “entertainment purposes”.
James’ fans came out in force to defend him and many hit out at Strictly and the celebrities who have said they had a negative experience on the show.
One comment which James, 46, responded too had said: “Everything is blown out of proportion, if the celebrities can’t take the hard regime they shouldn’t be doing it.”
Another person wrote: “The entire thing is becoming a farce . Most of us don’t believe the rubbish being spouted.”
One more penned: “I feel like something is going on for all these instances to be coming out now!”
And a fourth replied to James: “Strictly is going down the plug. I’m not watching anymore.”
James replied to each comment with red heart emojis.
It comes as a third pro dancer was identified as a “person of interest” amid the probe into Strictly Come Dancing.
And James warned people not to link him to the show’s bullying crisis, telling his fans last night: “To be clear, I deplore bullying or abusiveness in the workplace.”
Insiders said the name of the male dancer, who is no longer part of the BBC show, had been given to lawyers Carter Ruck.
Graziano, 30, was dismissed by the BBC over allegations he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott.
Giovanni, 33, quit earlier this year after his celeb partner Amanda Abbington claimed her time with him left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
In his statement, James added: “But I just wanted to reassure you that footage was shot and edited together by the BBC team for transmission on It Takes Two 18 years ago in specific ways for the purposes of ENTERTAINMENT.
“Many of the clips were not related to Georgina at all (they are not allowed to do that these days as it misrepresents what actually happened) but were included for the purpose of exaggeration.
“The BBC thought it would be fun to put this VT together in the way they did. You can see Georgina laughing about it in the studio and in the clips… And I have never received ANY complaints from any of my celebrity dance partners in the 8 years I was on the show.
“Obviously if I had genuinely upset anyone, that footage would NEVER have been allowed to be used in that way by the BBC themselves.
“The Producers loved to paint me as the bad guy and I played along…always a perfectionist …but I would never have deliberately upset anyone and pride myself on good friendships with my celebrity dance partners.”
He added: “I strongly suggest that nobody attempts to link this edited BBC VT with the current alleged reports of abusive behaviour taking place behind the scenes by other Strictly professionals.
“There is no comparison to be drawn between those awful allegations and the highly produced and exaggerated VT from the BBC archives that is featuring on social media.”
