Laura Whitmore says she is fed up with media speculation about her love life and admits she joined Strictly Come Dancing to shed her "sex kitten" image.
The MTV star, who is paired up with her friend Georgia May Foote's ex-boyfriend on the hit BBC dancing show, insists her feelings for Giovanni Pernice are strictly platonic.
“My relationship with Giovanni is completely professional.” she told The Daily Mail. “That’s all I ever want it to be. When all this happened he called me and told me not to let any of it get to me, to ignore it and get on with the show.
“To be honest he’s far too young for me and even though I’m single I’m still going on a couple of dates when I have the time - but not with Giovanni.”
"My problem is that people have no idea who I am. To them, I'm this TV presenter with blonde hair who gets linked to every single man I interview or stand next to," she said.
The 31-year-old Bray native said the reason she signed up for the popular BBC show was to show people who she really is.
"I wanted to do Strictly because it's a family audience - there will be a lot of people who don't know anything about me," she said.
"It's the one show where people get a chance to see you for who you are. Then this whole thing with Giovanni blew up in my face. I couldn't believe it could all go so wrong, so fast.
"Georgia - who is a good friend of mine - has been lovely but I felt things had been spoilt before I'd even got a chance to start."
Whitmore received plenty of praise from the Strictly Come Dancing judges on Saturday, scoring 30 points for her "out of my comfort zone" salsa - including a '9' from Bruno Tonioli.
Dancing to Rhythm of the Night from the film Moulin Rouge!, Whitmore said her Movie Week performance with professional partner Pernice would be "fiery, feisty and very, very different" from last week's waltz.
The dance lived up to the billing, with head judge Len Goodman somewhat surprised by its raunchiness.
"You're a terrific dancer," he told the presenter. "You come out and you go for it."
Goodman concluded by saying that while the dance lacked finesse, Whitmore would be on the BBC One show "for ages".
His colleague, Bruno Tonioli, said he was "gobsmacked" by the performance, describing it as one of the hottest, sexiest salsas he had ever seen.
"You're a terrific dancer," he told the presenter. "You come out and you go for it."
