Former Strictly Come Dancing star Kristina Rihanoff has said that spin-off show It Takes Two was not the place for comedian Seann Walsh and his professional partner Katya Jones to apologise for their recent kiss.
Walsh and Jones appeared on the BBC Two show on Wednesday to address the cheating scandal that blew up after pictures of them kissing were published last weekend.
The pair had previously apologised in separate statements on social media after they were spotted kissing after a night out in London.
Walsh had been in a long-term relationship with his now-former girlfriend, actress Rebecca Humphries, while Jones is married to fellow Strictly professional Neil Jones.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast about Walsh and Jones facing the music on Strictly on BBC One tonight, professional dancer Rihanoff said: "They have to be professional. They are performers at the end of the day, and they have to put all of this aside, and let's face it, there are much more difficult situations...
"Last year, Alexandra Burke danced and her mother passed away, and I'm sure that was a real, real struggle to get herself together."
"So yes, it's been a terrible week but they have to get themselves together, and I don't think It Takes Two was the right programme to say sorry," Rihanoff continued.
"The show is about dancing, not about private lives. They apologised on social media and I'm sure in private to all the partners involved, so I can't really understand why the subject was brought up on It Takes Two."
Rihanoff said she hopes viewers of the show judge Walsh and Jones for their dancing, not events off the dancefloor.
"At the end of the day, they are hired to do a job. They are both under contract, and they have to perform and the show is about dancing; it isn't about personal lives. So they have to go out and I hope they'll perform their best tonight, and if they will be eliminated, let it be.
"However, I wish for them to go and to do the best they can possibly do."
Rihanoff also said she does not believe there is a so-called 'Strictly curse' for people in relationships who appear on the show.
"There are so many other reality shows that bring couples to either go apart, or get together - there's I'm A Celebrity, Big Brother. I just think Strictly is watched by so many more people," she said.
"Statistically people get together at work, and that's where people work."
The 41-year-old added that she could not see any similarities between Walsh and Jones's predicament and her own relationship with former Strictly partner Ben Cohen.
Rihanoff and Cohen danced together on the show in 2013 and became a couple the following year after Cohen's marriage ended. Their daughter, Mia, was born in 2016.
"The only parallel is that we met on the show, but our relationship developed after the show," Rihanoff said.
"And also, I have a family. I have a child and we are a family and that's what matters."
Strictly Come Dancing, Saturday, BBC One, 6:40pm
