Anton Du Beke broke his silence on Saturday after his ‘1970s-style behaviour’ with former Strictly dance partner Laila Rouass ‘raised concerns’.
The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 58, reduced contestant Laila to tears during the 2009 series when he jokingly told her she ‘looked like a P***’ after her spray tan.
As he is the latest star to be thrown into the misconduct scandal, Anton brushed off the resurfaced historic row by sharing a slew of Instagram reposts on his birthday.
Anton apologised to Laila at the time and admitted he felt ‘stupid’ and ’embarrassed’ by his comments to the actress, who is of Indian and Moroccan descent, with the duo making amends a few weeks later.
His wife Hannah shared a heartfelt message to Anton alongside snaps of his six-year-old twins George and Henrietta.
She penned: ‘Happy birthday darling Anton Du Beke George, Ra Ra and I couldn’t love you more and can’t wait to celebrate when we’re all together! We will ring soon for a serenade…. Brace yourself for Granny! Happy birthday my darling. I love you. ❤️’
‘At one time the Americans used to call us ‘limeys’ which doesn’t sound very nice, but we used to laugh about it. Everybody has a nickname.’
But hours later a statement from Bruce was issued by the BBC.
‘What Anton said to Laila was wrong and he has apologised unreservedly for this. Nor do I in any way excuse or condone the use of such language,’ it said.
