Caprice has hit back at the latest rumours surrounding her Dancing On Ice exit.
Since stepping down from the ITV skating show – two weeks after it was announced that she and her professional partner Hamish Gaman had “parted ways” – Caprice has been keeping a fairly low profile, which includes having deleted her Twitter page.
However, she broke her silence via a representative, to share her side of the story over reports in The Sun that she “humiliated” Hamish, telling him he was “too feminine” as they trained together.
The model’s spokesperson has now told Metro that Caprice “always complimented” Hamish’s skating abilities, and suggested she is being “bullied” by the media.
“Caprice has been doing her best to recover, look after her mental health and move forward, but ‘unknown’ sources keep leaking fabricated, defamatory stories about her to the press,” they said.
“Caprice always [complimented] Hamish on his beautiful and elegant skating skills, and her admiration for him can clearly been seen throughout Dancing On Ice footage.
“Caprice and her family are deeply distressed by the relentless barrage of false and damaging stories about her. She has been honest about her deteriorating mental health as a result of these constant and malicious public assaults from ‘unknown’ sources, and for them to continue even after her withdrawal from the show is grossly unfair.”
They continued: “This is bullying behaviour. When someone is down and out and suffering tremendously – they seek to bring them down and twist the knife in even more.
“Caprice received very little support from ITV and had to seek external help of her own accord. She has been seeing a counselling psychologist as well as two doctors on an ongoing basis. She has been deeply distressed by the occurrences that have happened over the last few months, and this has directly [affected] not only herself but her family.”
With regards to the claims she received “very little support”, ITV declined to comment when contacted by HuffPost UK, although they did reiterate a previous statement regarding bullying behind the scenes.
They said: “We take allegations of bullying very seriously but found no evidence on Dancing On Ice and we strongly refute any suggestion to the contrary.
“We’re very proud of the team, both on and off screen. They produce a fantastic show and we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works on the programme is fully supported before, during and after the series is on air.”
After originally “parting ways” with Hamish, Caprice took a week off the show, only to return with new skating partner Oscar Peter.
The pair wound up in the bottom two after their first skate of the series, after which it was revealed Caprice had chosen to take herself out of the competition.
Dancing On Ice airs on Sunday nights on ITV.
