Gemma Collins has hit back at Craig Revel-Horwood after he claimed she wasn’t "high calibre" enough to take part in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The 36-year-old reality star has made no secret of her desire to join the cast of the BBC Latin and ballroom dance competition, but her dream was seemingly dashed last month when Craig – who sits on the judging panel for the show – claimed she wasn’t famous enough to be considered in the line-up.
However, the ‘Only Way is Essex’ star isn’t hurt by his comments, as she found them "funny", and is still intent on landing a place in next year’s series.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she said: "I find his comment funny.
"I’m not low rent, Craig. We’ve all got to start somewhere and it’s a shame to just knock someone out of giving them a chance because they don’t think I’m high calibre enough.
"Well I’m sorry I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I get 2.2million hits on my social media. Where did he start?
"He was just a dancer and I was just a girl from Romford once. I’m not being funny, a couple more years who knows? I could be sitting drinking tea with Madonna.
"If anything, I’d probably bring a different audience to the BBC. It’ll be called the BGC by the time I’ve finished with rumba-ing it up."
It comes after 52-year-old Craig – who is known for his acid tongue – admitted the blonde beauty would be "fun" on the show, but claimed there wouldn’t be any chance of her wiggling her way into the line-up because bosses don’t tend to go for reality TV stars when choosing their stars.
He said: "Gemma Collins would be fun on the show but it’s not very often that we have reality stars take to the ballroom. We generally have people of a higher calibre than that."