JoJo Siwa says she’s ‘keeping Chris Hughes around’ before teasing future together

If JoJo Siwa wanted to keep a lid on speculation about her and Chris Hughes’ relationship status, she didn’t achieve her aim on Saturday night.

The American singer and dancer, 21, became good friends with the former Love Island contestant, 32, while on Celebrity Big Brother in April.

JoJo entered the house coupled up with Australian actor and influencer Kath Ebbs, but grew closer and closer to Chris as the competition went along.

Kath claimed that Dance Moms star JoJo broke off their relationship at the CBB wrap party—from which Kath was seen leaving alone—before they’d even got to a hotel room.

Some accused JoJo of cheating on Kath with Chris; however, an appearance on This Morning indicated that the pair were ‘just friends’.

But speculation is rife once more after comments JoJo made while on stage and talking to fans during a recent live Q&A at Stanford University, California.

She was asked on Saturday night how she saw their friendship (or relationship) progressing now that the pair were out of the Celebrity Big Brother house.

Her response was: ‘I mean, look, we have the absolute most fun together and he is an absolute gem that’s come into my life.’

When her reply caused a few audience members to say ‘Aww,’ she joked that it would only boost Chris’s ego if he were shown the footage of what she’d said.

‘Don’t let him see this—it will boost his ego!’ she laughed, before clarifying: ‘[No], genuinely something I love about him so much is that he has zero ego; he’s a really incredible sweet man.’

She continued: ‘I told him this on the last night [in the house]—maybe it wasn’t the last night, but sometime, I said, “You’re a vital part of my life that I didn’t know was missing.”

‘But I’m happy that I don’t have to [miss him] anymore. So yeah, he is an awesome guy and I think he will be around for a very long time.’

The crowd then wolf-whistled, to which JoJo laughed and jokingly demanded that they ‘grow up’ before adding: ‘He’s a keeper; we’ll keep him around. We’ll see.’

Speaking to Metro, JoJo’s ex-partner Kath, 27, called out people who were only believing ‘one side of the story’ after the couple’s split late last month.

‘It’s really unfortunate that my relationship with this person is being reduced to untrue allegations about what happened at a party. The public has only heard one side of the story.

‘Attacks on my character are not something I take lightly, especially from someone I cared for deeply and shared a committed relationship with.’

Speaking about the break-up, JoJo insisted Chris had nothing to do with it, however.

‘Obviously, a lot of people think that Chris has something to do with it. Chris does not have absolutely anything to do with it.’

JoJo then again insisted that she and Chris were ‘friends’ when appearing on the Viall Files podcast.

While Chris has remained pretty silent in comparison with JoJo as far as discussing their connection outside of the house is concerned, he did recently take to social media to shut down one rumour.

It was reported that the presenter had signed up for the latest series of Celebs Go Dating, replacing Christine McGuinness after she pulled out.

But in a joint statement, Chris’s representative and a spokesperson for the dating show confirmed that, after discussions with his team, Chris had changed his mind.

Following a ‘very intense’ three weeks of CBB, he decided Celebs Go Dating wasn’t his thing after all.

The reality star keeps his dating life pretty private these days, but he’s previously enjoyed high-profile romances with Olivia Attwood and Jesy Nelson.

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