Strictly Come Dancing host Josh Widdicombe has revealed he was hit in the back by an angry plane passenger following an innocent gesture he made on a flight
Strictly Come Dancing’s Josh Widdicombe was struck by an angry holidaymaker in a row over plane seats.
The new host of the BBC One dancing competition said he became embroiled in an unexpected fight as he flew home from Greece with his family.
The presenter, 43, told how he put his foot on the edge of an empty seat to tie his shoelace while waiting to use the toilet on board the aircraft. However, things took a drastic turn when the person in the next seat hit out at Josh and said the empty seat belonged to her husband.
But while Widdicombe apologised for his actions, his attempt to defuse the situation did not go down well as the husband angrily confronted him moments later.
Josh placed his foot on the edge of a seat to tie his laces(Image: Matt Crossick/PA Media Assignments)
The presenter claims he was ‘whacked’ in the back by the man who was using the seat(Image: Getty Images for Bauer)
Speaking of the incident, Josh said: “It was on the plane back from Greece. I went up to the toilet at the front of the queue, and you know the front seats. There was someone at the window seat, and then there were two empty seats, so I perched on the arm of the end empty seat, and I looked down, and my shoe was undone, so I put it up on the corner of the seat.
“Fine, I made a mistake.” Speaking on the Parenting Hell podcast, he continued: “The woman at the end said, ‘Excuse me, that’s my husband’s seat’, so I was like, ‘Fine, sorry I’ve made my mistake, put my foot down.’
“She doesn’t accept the apology; she tries to continue telling me off. So I kind of turned back and queued up. The guy comes out of the loo.”
Josh said: “He sits down, and then he goes past me and whacks me in the back as he goes past me. You know like Richard Ashcroft in that Urban Hymns video, like a footballer off the ball and then he goes past me and goes ‘Did you put your foot on my seat?’
Josh said the man then insisted on getting napkins to wipe his seat down after the flight attendants on board the aircraft went over to check he was OK.
However, Josh said one member of the crew then joked to him, “There’s one on every flight, isn’t there?”
“The air steward starts to confide me in, so I start to dig into this and start laughing away with the air steward, I really go for it with the charming chat with the air stewards,” he said.
“At that point, a woman comes up and says she’s a fan of me, and I think ‘This is glorious’. Then later on the flight I go to the toilet again and the woman is still staring at me, even as I walk down the aisle she cranes her neck to evil me, I’ve said sorry by this point.
“An hour later, I hear the stewards saying, ‘He’s still cleaning the seat with his napkin’, it’s been an hour! He might be germophobic, I suppose.”
Josh recalled how the incident left him worried that the man in question was going to “confront” him, adding it was a “weird” situation.
