Jason Gardiner is said to be planning to take legal action against Gemma Collins after she accused him of "selling stories" about her.
Jason Gardiner
The 'Dancing on Ice' judge and the 37-year-old show contestant were involved in a big, heated bust-up during last Sunday's (20.01.19) live show, on which she made the accusation and also branded him "boring", and he is said to be "livid".
An insider told The Sun newspaper: "Jason has made Gemma aware that he intends to sue her. He's livid.
"He insists that all he did was give an interview to The Sun, where he was asked about lots of things, including Gemma."
Gemma is said to be keen for the issue to "die down" so she can concentrate on her skating.
It comes after Jason described Gemma as "lazy" in an interview last Saturday (19.01.19).
Following Sunday's huge row, in which Jason described Gemma as a "brat" following her article accusation, he wrote on Twitter: "Being wrongly accused of 'selling stories' was a blatant attempt to defame my character. (sic)"
And earlier this week, Gemma's skating partner Matt Evers fuelled further speculation that Jason had sold stories about her, as the former 'TOWIE' star had suggested.
He said: "First and foremost I will defend Jason yes there wasn't a lot of content. I didn't have a lot of rehearsal time with her this past week. He was absolutely correct saying that, as well as the other judges on that part.
"However, word has it he did sell a couple of stories this week and she went for gold. It was spicy.
"Basically, when it comes to 'DOI' you have a choice to either go through ITV press office to release interviews and kinda release statements and things like that, it's a bit controlled but people know what's happening.
"Thursday the story came out that she was a disgrace to humanity and lack of a better term."
But Jason later took to Twitter to insist his PR agent informs ITV about every interview he conducts, and he added: "Matt is uninformed & propagating lies to try & defame my character. (sic)"
Matt has back-tracked on his comments, tweeting: "Always own up to your mistakes! I just want to say sorry to Jason as today on Heart FM I intimated he sold stories to a newspaper. I totally got my wires crossed and I apologise. It's been one hell of a 24 hours! (sic)"
Jason, 47, has also hit out at people who he claims are trying to gain "publicity at [his] expense".
In response to a supporter, he wrote on Twitter: "People in glass houses mate. I'm afraid they all jump on bandwagon to get publicity at my expense. Pay them all no heed. End of day, I'm still the only original judge on the show. Thank you for your support David. #honestjudge (sic)"
On Tuesday (22.01.19), Gemma took to Instagram to reveal she is taking a break from social media until Sunday (27.01.19) because she needs to concentrate on her skating after receiving the lowest score of the series in last Sunday's show.
She wrote: "Guys after today I can't be on social as I really need to up my skating skills I'm not leaving you but I really need to focus here's a little something to keep you going xxx il be back up and running Sunday (sic)"
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