'Dancing On Ice' judge Jason Gardiner has slammed Gemma Collins for incorrectly belittling his dancing expertise and claiming he can't skate.
Jason Gardiner
The 37-year-old 'TOWIE' star was unhappy with his harsh critique of her first routine last weekend and dismissed his opinion because his skating skills are no good.
Jason, 47, has now hit back and has let The GC know that his skating skills have been given the seal of approval by fellow judges and Olympic figure skating gold medallists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and to respect that he has been chose to be on the panel because of his decades of experience in dance.
Appearing on 'This Morning', he said: "We have to forgive these people for being incorrect and not knowing their stuff because I would guess she doesn't understand where I come from, she doesn't know that I actually can skate. She wants to speak to Jayne and Chris, they'll tell her I can actually skate.
"I have never professed to be a professional skater, it is not what I am. I am not on the panel to judge the skating. We leave that to skating royalty Jayne and Chris. Ashley (Banjo) and I have very clearly defined roles on the panel to talk about the performance, the choreography. So that's what we do."
Gemma dismissed judge Jason by claiming he "can't back up" his comments with "actions" because he's never been a pro skater.
She previously said: "I find him highly amusing. I really like him, yes he's definitely going to say stuff about me but Jason Gardiner can't actually skate. Jason can have all the chat, but he can't back it up with the actions."
Brian McFadden, Melody Thornton, Wes Nelson, Richard Blackwood, Saira Khan and Ryan Sidebottom all take to the rink for their first routines this weekend.
'Dancing On Ice' airs on ITV on Sunday (13.01.19) at 6pm.
Tagged in Jason Gardiner Gemma Collins Jayne Torvill