Strictly’s Vito Coppola and Sarah Hadland have broke their silence on Katya Jones and Wynne Evans’ ‘hand incident’ after facing major backlash.

The dance partners have spent the week defending their awkward exchange during Saturday night’s live show, when viewers spotted the toe-curling moment Katya moved Wynne’s hand away from her waist and snubbed his attempt at a high-five with her.

During an appearance on Wednesday’s This Morning, Vito and Sarah were asked to address the recent controversy by co-hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley.

The Italian star said pro dancers often ‘prank’ their celeb contestants and try to have fun with them.

Ben said: ‘It’s been a difficult week in many ways and you’re on the inside of it, with Wynne and Katya.

Strictly’s Vito Coppola and Sarah Hadland have broke their silence on Katya Jones and Wynne Evans’ ‘hand incident’ after facing major backlash

The dance partners have spent the week defending their awkward exchange during Saturday night’s live show, when viewers spotted the toe-curling moment Katya moved Wynne’s hand away from her waist and snubbed his attempt at a high-five with her

‘We saw what happened on the weekend and we’ve seen it since, that they’ve come out and made it very clear that they’re great mates, it was a joke

‘But it’s when you understand how forensically people are pouring over the show and are looking for the slightest bit of information or nuance over what’s going on. How does that feel?’

Sarah explained: ‘Especially for a show like Strictly, as you say there’s so much attention, you’ve got to go into it completely being yourself and keep doing that, because I wouldn’t be able to maintain something that isn’t yourself.

‘So I think you’ve got to be who you are, react how you react to stuff and that’s all you can do and hope that people connect with that.’

Ben then asked if it was an ‘eye-opener that they are constantly being scrutinised’ and how things can be ‘misconstrued’.

Vito replied: ‘The key is to be yourself, the fun…I’m constantly pranking Sarah here. I’m constantly waiting behind a door [and jump out].’

Sarah added: ‘If we have a toilet break and I’m quite a jumpy person and I jump even more.’

During an appearance on Wednesday’s This Morning, Vito and Sarah were asked to address the recent controversy by co-hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley

The opera singer and his pro dance partner have been hard at work this week, in between defending the interraction (pictured on Saturday)

Katya and Wynne looked tense as they walked to Strictly Come Dancing training on Tuesday.

The opera singer, 52, and his pro dance partner, 35, have been hard at work this week, in between facing questions on the unusual interaction, but they looked far from their usual bubbly selves on Tuesday.

Showing the strain on their faces, neither Katya or Wynne raised a smile as they walked to their training studio in Wales.

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The appearance comes hours after the pair made an emotional appearance on Strictly spin off show It Takes Two.

Katya has defended her celebrity partner, declaring he has been ‘portrayed as someone he is not’, as the pair insist his ‘wandering hand’ incident was a silly joke.

On Monday evening’s TV appearance, Wynne admitted he had watched the footage of the incident back and confessed: ‘I can see how people may have misinterpreted it.’

Clinging to his arm, Katya said she ‘can’t bear’ the flack her co-star is getting and was empathetic that there was no wrongdoing.

She said: ‘The idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is total nonsense, and those that have doubts, you guys have got it wrong. So hopefully this will be the end of it, and you just keep making me smile.’

She added: ‘I can’t sit here watching this man being portrayed as someone he’s not. In fact, it couldn’t be further away from the truth.

‘So I have to make this absolutely clear that this whole incident, with the hand and the high five on Saturday night, was an inside joke between Wynne and I. Was it a silly joke? Yes, was it a bad joke? Yes.’

The appearance comes hours after the pair made an emotional appearance on Strictly spin off show It Takes Two

The incident caused such concern among BBC top brass, who have spent months firefighting accusations of misconduct on previous series, that a welfare investigation was conducted.

A source said: ‘The Strictly welfare team checked in on the pair individually to confirm that nothing was awry and that both were comfortable continuing with the partnership.

‘Training room researchers have kept meticulous logs of what goes on during rehearsals between every celebrity couple, and Wynne and Katya are no different.

‘If there had been any form of misbehaviour or cause for concern, then it would have been flagged by the welfare team.

‘There hasn’t been and they consider the matter closed.’

The BBC confirmed that no further actions are planned.

Wynne, who has starred in the GoCompare adverts for over a decade, claims that he has been left ‘heartbroken’ by the fallout after some Strictly fans called for him to be axed from the show.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, where he presents a daily show, Mr Evans said: ‘I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.

He said: ‘I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day.

The duo had become surprise favourites to win this year’s Strictly, scoring 34 out of 40 from the judges for their tango on Saturday.

‘It’s not nice to live in that time, but basically Katya and I are really, really close and we’re really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke.

‘It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.

As the dancing duo gave the downlow about any secret romances going on behind the scenes in a recent interview, Wynne randomly steered the question onto Katya

‘Everything’s on Katya’s socials. She’s talked about it. She’s explained that it was a joke. She wasn’t offended in the least. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

‘We’ve got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I’m sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is, there is no real story, really.

‘And I feel weird apologising because I feel like I’ve not really done anything.’

He agreed he had ‘misjudged it’, when interviewed on Radio Wales Breakfast before starting his own show on the station, and confirmed he was ‘absolutely still up for’ Strictly.

He said: ‘I’m having the best time of my life. I just don’t want this to be the bit that people remember.’

On Sunday, Evans and Jones released a video on Instagram saying they were ‘just messing around in the ‘Clauditorium’ the previous evening and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke’.

And replying to several users on X, formerly Twitter, the dancer said: ‘You picked up on our joke!’

In another moment on Saturday night, Jones appeared to not want to high five her celebrity partner.

A caption alongside their video explained that ‘high fives is a running joke’.

But viewers of Sunday night’s results show were not convinced by the explanation, claiming they had spotted Jones appearing to ‘glare’ at her celebrity partner.

During the show, Claudia asked Evans how he felt, noting he looked shocked.

Wynne replied: ‘I am shocked because I didn’t think I’d survive week one so to be here after having done a tango is really thrilling.

‘And I had such a good time and thank you to Katya’s clever choreography.’

The duo had become surprise favourites to win this year’s Strictly, scoring 34 out of 40 from the judges for their tango on Saturday

As Evans gave his answer fans spotted that Katya remained stony faced and even appeared to wince as the opera singer evaluated his performance.

Chaperones have been put in place on Strictly during rehearsals for this year after an review was launched by the BBC following Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington making complaints about her 2023 professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice .

The BBC apologised to Abbington and said: ‘We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made .’

Pernice has always denied the allegations, and said he was ‘happy’ after the investigation cleared him of the majority of abuse allegations.

Outlining the show’s new duty of care measures in September, the BBC said: ‘In July, we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s show.

‘These included a production team member present during training room rehearsals at all times; two new roles on the show dedicated to welfare support – a celebrity welfare producer and a professional dancer welfare producer (both started work in August); and additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew’.