Oti Mabuse has defended Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa’s relationship on Celebrity Big Brother, calling it “literally platonic”.
Chris and JoJo have formed a close bond on the ITV reality show, which has sparked some backlash from their fellow housemates who have accused the pair of “gameplaying”.
Their friendship was brought up during last night’s (21 April) episode of Celebrity Big Brother: Late & Live after a clip of JoJo sucking chocolate from Chris’ shorts was shown, to which some of the panellists said this was “not normal” behaviour.
However, former Strictly Come Dancing star Oti was quick to jump to Chris and JoJo’s defence, explaining how professional dancers such as herself and JoJo “don’t mind touching and being really close” with their friends.
“Can I just say, I don’t mind their friendship. As a professional dancer, we are quite tactile people anyway, so we don’t mind touching,” she said.
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“We don’t mind touching and being really close. And I do feel like their friendship is actually showing other people’s insecurities and [leaving them] thinking, ‘Why are we not in that duo?’ And it’s just showing who they are.”
“I don’t think that Chris is thinking [about] opportunity with JoJo,” Oti added. “I just think his intelligence level is more like JoJo, and it’s literally platonic and they are just friends.”
Before his eviction from the house last week, Daley Thompson claimed that JoJo and Chris had gameplans to “get more airtime”.
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This left some of the other housemates feeling suspicious, with Ella Rae Wise saying in Sunday’s (20 April) episode: “Daley just basically said that you’ve got to be careful. There are two reality stars in here that do reality every single day.
“He said they know what they’re doing, if they pair up, they’re going to take a lot of air time from people. And it’s going to be very fixated on them both. And just to be mindful.”
Chris later defended his “genuine” friendship with JoJo, adding: “I’m fine with other people looking at it from that perspective.
“When you’ve been somewhere for two weeks, naturally you’re going to gravitate towards people. That’s just life.”
Celebrity Big Brother airs on ITV1 and ITVX. Celebrity Big Brother: Late & Live airs on ITV2 at 10pm.
Read more Celebrity Big Brother news on our dedicated homepage
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Freelance Reporter, Digital Spy After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022. In that role, Iona wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona now contributes to DS as a freelance reporter.
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