Scott Mills: ‘You don’t have to dance with a man because you’re gay’

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Scott Mills has shot down suggestions he should be paired with a male dance partner on Strictly Come Dancing.

Speaking to Metro, the gay BBC Radio 1 DJ defended the show’s bosses for pairing him up with Joanne Clifton

He said: “I don’t know where that [suggestion] came from. It doesn’t bother me either.

“Other gay people have done the show, like Julien Macdonald last year, and no-one said he should have a male dancer.

“I don’t know why it’s happened with me. I’ll do what the producers want me to do. You don’t have to dance with a man because you’re gay.”

Before the show started, Mills was rumoured to be dancing with Anton Du Beke.

Mills added that he did not thing being the first contestant to have a same-sex partner would add any extra pressure, however.

“I don’t think it’s even an issue,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind being the first male contestant to have a male dancer and, in this day and age, I don’t see why it should put pressure on people.”

Earlier this month, Mills denounced claims that Strictly Come Dancing is “homophobic.”

He said: “It is the campest glitziest show on television. If there is homophobia over Strictly Come Dancing then the show wouldn’t exist.”

Robin Windsor, who was the only openly gay professional dancer on the show, was forced to pull out last month over a back injury.

Strictly Come Dancing is set return to screens tonight at 21:00 on BBC One.