James Jordan on Loose Women, Ellie Simmonds on Strictly
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Strictly news: James Jordan defends ‘offensive’ Ellie Simmonds comments

Ellie's performance has received widespread praise

Ex Strictly pro James Jordan made news headlines this week after being called out over his allegedly “offensive” Ellie Simmonds comments.

Of course, Ellie took to the Strictly dance floor for the first time last weekend – and naturally James had something to say about her performance.

Except his comments didn’t go down well with Strictly fans who watched her dance from home.

James has now defended his comments while also taking the opportunity to slam people “jumping on the bandwagon”.

Ellie Simmonds on Strictly Come Dancing
Ellie was criticised by James recently (Credit: BBC)

Strictly news: James’ ‘offensive’ comment about Ellie

Saturday night saw Ellie make her dancing debut on Strictly Come Dancing.

The Paralympian swimmer is paired with Nikita Kuzmin on this year’s show.

Together they performed a Cha-Cha-Cha to Dance by DNCE. They scored a respectable 26 out of a possible 40 on the night.

I meant it with no malice whatsoever and if it’s offended people they’ve chosen to be offended by it.

Following her performance, former Strictly pro James Jordan took to Twitter to share his thoughts on her performance.

In his critique, James said that the 27-year-old needs to “straighten her legs as much as possible” when dancing.

“Ellie! I bloody loved it! Well done Nikita – a full-on routine – great timing and fun. She needs to try and consciously straighten her legs as much as possible,” he tweeted.

“Loved the tricks BUT she needs to believe in herself now. Apart from that it was great and she’s an inspiration.”

However, despite his praise, his comments have come under fire from fans of the show.

James Jordan, Ola Jordan, and their child on Steph's Packed Lunch
James defended his comments on Steph’s Packed Lunch (Credit: Channel 4)

James backs his critique of Ellie

During an appearance on Steph’s Packed Lunch yesterday (Tuesday, September 27), James defended his comments.

The 44-year-old dancer argued that his comments were purely to help Ellie improve her dancing skills.

“I specifically put on there [Twitter] that I can see her dance sometimes with bent legs, I can see her bending her legs,” he said.

“I’m not saying her legs are going to go dead straight, I never said that, but she needs to be consciously thinking about extending her leg,” he continued.

“She’s actually bending into it when it should be straight.”

Nikita Kuzmin and Ellie Simmonds on Strictly
Ellie and Nikita are paired up on this year’s show (Credit: BBC)

James lashes out

James then continued, saying that he believes the judges didn’t judge Ellie the same as they judged the other dancers. He branded this a “mistake”.

“I’m sure Ellie would want to be critiqued,” he said.

“This is just people jumping on the bandwagon,” he said. “She is on there representing dwarfism which I think it’s an amazing thing and I actually found her dance, out of everybody’s, really heart-warming.

“But I’m still going to critique her the same as everybody else and I actually believe the judges didn’t critique her the same as everybody else, which I think is a mistake.”

He then continued, adding: “If you’re going to have these people on there, which I think is great, critique them the same.”

When asked if he regrets his tweet about Ellie, James said he still stands by it.

“I meant it with no malice whatsoever and if it’s offended people they’ve chosen to be offended by it,” he said.

Read more: ‘Worries’ Helen Skelton’s life as a single mum could threaten Strictly success

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday (October 1) on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Ellie Simmonds & Nikita Cha Cha Cha to DANCE by DNCE ✨ BBC Strictly 2022

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Robert Emlyn Slater
Senior Writer