Thomas Skinner has shared details of his Strictly Come Dancing salary after he made headlines this week for storming out of a press event.
The Apprentice star, 34, was conducting a series of interviews alongside the rest of the 2025 Strictly cast after a morning of rehearsals on Tuesday.
Metro attended the BBC press day and was informed that Skinner only took part in two interviews before ‘storming out’ of the event held at Elstree Studios, where the ballroom dance show is also filmed.
It came after many were left incensed by the inclusion of the businessman in the 2025 show line-up, since he has come under fire in recent years for comments including that London is ‘hostile’, ‘tense’ and ‘not safe out there anymore’.
Skinner met US vice president JD Vance while he was on holiday in the Cotswolds last month and shared a selfie of the pair from a barbecue.
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The Essex businessman has now shared details of the fee he’s receiving for the show in a new interview, in which he describes it as an ‘absolute honour’ to appear on the BBC programme.
The reality star told The Times: ‘I’m getting ten grand for Strictly but seriously, I’d do it for a tenner.’
The article then noted that the figure ‘should not be taken as his full fee’, according to Skinner’s BBC publicist. Metro contacted the BBC for further comment on this.
It comes after Skinner apologised for abruptly leaving a Strictly press event this week, sharing a statement ‘to set the record straight’.
‘During one of the interviews, a journalist placed their phone on the table to record the conversation,’ his statement posted to Instagram Stories began.
‘I happened to catch a glimpse of the screen and saw numerous messages – not about Strictly – but about a personal story from my past.’
Skinner did not elaborate on what the story in question was, but continued: ‘I’ve been through some difficult times in my life, which I’ve worked hard to move on from.
‘In that moment, seeing it there caught me off guard. I felt it was best to step away and gather myself.’
What happened at the Strictly Come Dancing press event?
Metro understands that Skinner was being interviewed with football star Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink by a group of journalists at the time of the incident.
At one point, Skinner is said to have picked up a journalist’s phone from the table, before they eventually got it back from him.
The 34-year-old had yet to answer any questions when he abruptly left the interview, prompting Hasselbaink to follow him out of the room.
Yet it was only Hasselbaink that returned to complete the remainder of their interviews, with Skinner unavailable for any other journalists in attendance.
When Skinner first walked into the press room alongside stars including Dani Dyer and Vicky Pattinson, he was smiling and seemed in good spirits.
The Daily Mail has claimed that his actions ‘left organisers furious and BBC bosses in crisis talks over whether he should remain on the show’.
In the statement set against a picture of the Strictly ballroom, he added: ‘This had nothing to do with the interviews or Strictly itself.
‘I’m sorry I picked up someone else’s phone and I don’t even know if the journalist realised their messages were visible, and I don’t want to suggest any bad intentions on their part.’
The Strictly press day incident occurred on the same day the BBC director general Tim Davie defended the inclusion of Skinner on the series.
‘That was not my decision, that was the production team looking for those people…who want to do Strictly, and those people they thought would be interesting to the audience,’ he said.
‘Clearly, we wouldn’t take anyone whose views are just beyond the pale, or we would see as completely unacceptable or not suitable, racist views, all those things, we wouldn’t accept them.
‘But that’s not the case here, from what I know, I’m not an expert on the individual, per se.’
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC screens from September 20.
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