British athlete mistaken for Dancing on Ice's Jason Gardiner reveals he auditioned for the show

Retired sprinter Jason Gardener has another unexpected Dancing on Ice connection
Mistaken identity: Gardener was inadvertently caught up in the spat
Barrington Coombs/PA Archive/PA Images
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Former sprinter Jason Gardener MBE has revealed that he auditioned to appear as a contestant on Dancing on Ice, as he confirmed that he has been an unexpected casualty of judge Jason Gardiner’s spat with Gemma Collins.

Gardener, 43, was dragged into the high-profile feud earlier this week, when fans of the ITV show began incorrectly tagging him on Twitter to air their views on Gardiner and Collins’ disagreement.

The retired athlete received a stream of angry tweets after Gardiner called the TOWIE star a “brat” and slammed her skating skills during Sunday night’s live show.

The runner told Standard Online: “I receive a lot of Twitter anti-Jason Gardiner messages as viewers don’t realise that my account is not his. One of those things I guess when you share the same name!”

He went on to explain that he has previously tried out for the show, revealing that the mix-up was “interesting” as “a few years ago I auditioned for the programme.”

Collins slammed Gardiner in a furious rant last week, accusing him of “selling stories about her” to the press after he declared her dance to Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend to be “lazy and mediocre.”

“Maybe if you didn’t sell stories on me, maybe I wouldn’t have been so upset this week,” she responded, describing his comments as “boring.”

Feud: Gardiner exchanged harsh words with Collins last week
PA

Shortly after, it was reported that the judge is ‘threatening to sue Collins’ after their heated exchange.

A source told The Sun: “Jason has made Gemma aware that he intends to sue her. He’s livid.

“He insists that all he did was give an interview to The Sun, where he was asked about lots of things, including Gemma.”

A representative for Gardiner told Standard Online: “Gemma’s own skating partner Matt Evers has publicly apologised on Twitter for making the same false claims as Gemma that Jason ‘sold stories’.

“Jason gave an interview to promote Dancing On Ice with The Sun last week. Within this interview he was asked about Gemma Collins and all the contestants. He gave his opinion, that is all.”

Dancing on Ice airs on ITV on Sundays at 9pm.

Dancing on Ice Contestants 2019 - In Pictures

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