A former Dancing on Ice star has opened up about having surgery to address an injury after competing on the show. James Jordan, now 46, was a contestant on the ITV show in 2019 and he ended up winning with his skating partner Vanessa James that year. The former Strictly Come Dancing star has commented on the show in the years since then. Following last weekend's episode, James spoke to Sky Vegas on behalf of the Mirror this week. The former Celebrity Big Brother housemate shared his thoughts on participants sustaining injuries on the ice, saying that the sport can be "tough" and recalling an injury he sustained on the show.
Several people have withdrawn from the latest series due to injuries. Paralympic cyclist Dame Sarah Storey dropped out first, just weeks before the launch, revealing that she had fractured her ankle. Then, following the launch, Josh Jones withdrew from the contest, with the comedian later sharing that he had injured his ankle in rehearsals too. Earlier this month, pro Vanessa Bauer announced that she would not be able to continue either after sustaining an injury backstage. She said that an MRI later found that she had "a completely torn ligament, grade three sprain injury and a major grade two sprain injury." More recently, it was announced that fellow pro Eric Radford would be taking at least a week off the ice after an injury in rehearsals.
Asked if viewers are aware of how dangerous it can be and whether stars may be pushing themselves too hard, James said: "We're talking about professionals here - Vanessa [Bauer] had to pull out through injury, and it just shows you how tough ice skating is. When something goes slightly wrong, it can cause injuries.". He added: "I had to have shoulder surgery after the show, because when I fell, I tore my rotator cuff. I loved doing the show and loved being part of it, but I knew what potentially could happen to me, and unfortunately, it did happen to me.".
James concluded: "The day before the final I tore my rotator cuff, and I had to have surgery, but that's the risk I was prepared to take. I signed up to the show and I knew what I was doing. People might say it's too dangerous, but the celebrities have decided to go on the show.". Dancing on Ice champion James had announced that he would need surgery for the injury shortly after winning the show back in 2019. He shared at the time that he had even asked to leave the contest shortly before the final but remained in it after having a physiotherapy session.
During the interview earlier this week, James also shared his thoughts on the show having attracted some criticism over innuendos and jokes recently. Asked if he still considers it a family show, he said: "It is a family show - the whole point of adult innuendos is that the younger people won't understand it anyway. That's the whole point of that. The adults understand it, but the younger people don't. If they do understand, it is because they're of a certain age.".
He then called for "more British humour". He said: "As far as I'm concerned, we need to have more of that on TV. We need to have more honesty. We need to have more British humour, the great British humour that we seem to be losing.". Dancing on Ice continues Sunday night from 6.30pm on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
