Catherine Tyldesley had "no idea" about the emails sent to a bakery about her supposed request for more than 100 free cakes.
Corrie star Catherine Tyldesley speaks out after cake-gate
The former 'Coronation Street' actress, 39, - who is married to Tom Pitfield and has Alfie, seven, and Iris, 16 months, with him - had been reported as being the mystery star at the heart of a case in which Three Little Birds bakery owner Rebecca Severs had received messages from party planners asking for a huge order for a celebrity's 40th birthday party in Manchester in exchange for publicity with OK! Magazine.
Catherine will celebrate her milestone birthday on 17 September and the email claimed that the mystery celebrity is throwing the party on September 1 - which is actually Tom's birthday - so she needed an extra cake for her husband as well as 100 small ones but the former 'Scarborough' actress took to social media soon after the email went viral to deny having any knowledge of the order whatsoever.
Speaking in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday (02.08.23), she said: "Cake gate?! What? So, I had no idea those emails were being sent. I'm not working with the lovely OK! Magazine on anything that I am aware of. NVRLND are an amazing company, they've supplied with me performers in the past. "
The former 'Strictly Come Dancing' contestant went on to claim that the party planners had been "completely misrepresented" in the furor and signed off by telling Rebecca that she "hoped" she got some publicity for her business as she sarcastically thanked her for causing the press to arrive at her house.
She added: "They're insane and they've been completely misrepresented in this matter. Utterly bizarre, I don't really know what to say. I mean, I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving, whilst I've got journalists knocking on my front door whilst my kids are playing in the front room. Dead nice, that, babes, thanks for coming!"
In her initial response email - which has been shared thousands of times on Facebook - Rebecca joked that she was "sorry" to hear that the celebrity client "had fallen on hard times" but claimed that she could not pay her mortgage with social media promotion.
She wrote: "I’m so sorry to hear that your client has fallen on such hard times they can’t afford to pay small businesses their products. Unfortunately as my mortgage provider doesn’t take payment “in the form of promotion on their socials, and my staff can’t feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I’ll have to decline your very generous offer."
The West Yorkshire-based business owner went on to further speak out about the incident, where she claimed she wanted to "highlight the issues" of a fair wage for small business workers amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Speaking on Rombalds Radio, she said: ‘It’s really important to highlight the issue of small businesses, especially in female-dominant industries, not earning a fair wage for their time and skill, especially in the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing.
"We are proud of our team who are all highly skilled at cake baking and decorating, and proud to have built a successful business based on correct pricing which means our staff are paid a decent wage and have job stability.
"We wish the same for NVRLND and offer them and their clients our best regards for the future."